By heidi
 

Lance hung up the phone, tapping his lip thoughtfully with it before talking to his bed mate.  "We need to set up a diversion."

Chris rolled over, slinging a still slightly bruised arm over the younger man's waist.  "Why?"

Setting his phone aside, he shifted in the bed, turning on his side so he was looking into Chris' eyes.  "That was Kevin on the phone."

Yawning, Chris cuddled further into the warmth of the bed.  "Oh yeah.  What happened with AJ and Howie?"

"They were set up.  Howie was hurt."

Chris' eyes opened wide.  "Howie?  How bad?"

"Dislocated his arm.  Brian has it set, but they're supposed to have an appearance tomorrow.  From what Kevin said, he faked his way through signing autographs when they got back to the hotel tonight before passing out in their suite.  Kev's worried about how he'll handle all the attention tomorrow."

"What's their schedule?"

"They have a radio show, then the concert tomorrow night.  Light day, but still."

"When you're in pain, it's enough."  Chris sat up fully awake, scratching his beard.  "Howie's a tough little hombre, but I think you're right, we need to create a distraction.  If anyone is looking for proof from them, they might find it with him."  Before Lance could reply, Chris was reaching for the room's phone and calling another room.  "Joey, group meeting, come to Lance's room.  Grab the other two on the way."

Lance smirked at how Chris had taken charge of the situation.  If it had been anyone besides Howie, Chris would have just laid back and gone along for the ride.  Hearing the knock at the door, Lance snagged his shorts before opening the door.

Seeing the vacant space in the bed, JC made a beeline for it, cuddling up to Chris, almost falling asleep immediately.  Chris carded his fingers through the curly hair.  "Stay awake C, this is important."

"K," was the half awake response.

Lance snorted from the door, watching his friends.  Joey and Justin followed JC through the door before sitting down on the sofa in the room.

"Okay, we're here.  What's up, Lance."

"Earlier tonight Kevin called."  Lance was amused to see how the other three became a little more alert, although with JC was hard to tell.  "Apparently Johnny called him, but not in time.  AJ and Howie went on a mission tonight that went bad.  Howie was injured.  They have a radio interview, and a show tomorrow night.  I think we need to set up a diversion to draw attention away from them over the next couple of days."

Joey leaned forward a little, his thumb rubbing at his creased brow.  "What's our schedule?"

"We actually have two days off.  Johnny had suggested we make a point of getting out and photographed a little."

Nodding, Joey settled back into his seat.  "Where the Boys at tomorrow?"

Laughing, Lance looked at his friend.  "Actually, they're in Philadelphia for a couple of days."  Noticing the grin on Joey's face, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I don't know.  But if you're wondering how long it'll take us to get there, then yes, we're thinking the same thing."

Justin started laughing.  "Man, we better get packed up if we want to be there by the morning."

*****

Kevin watched as Nick helped Howie from their room.  Howie looked a little pale, but over all, he seemed to be in pretty good shape.  Well, he did until his arm got jostled.

"Shouldn't you have your arm braced?"

Howie shook his head a little, fighting off the slight nausea he was experiencing.  "We're leaving right after we eat.  I figured I'd just put my hand into my jacket pocket and leave it there for the day.  Hopefully that'll keep it braced enough." 

Brian was standing in the doorway to his room, watching Nick fuss around his lover, giving him the pills to ease the pain Howie was feeling.  Howie smiled at Nick's efforts before looking at Brian to see if his idea was plausible.  "Wear the brown suede jacket, it'll hold your arm in the best position."

*****

The boys were settled in the booth, Nick placed on Howie's sore side, carefully guarding their friend to be sure he wasn't jiggled.  The interviewer was in the process of introducing them when there was a slight commotion in the hallway.

"As promised, the Backstreet Boys are in the house for the next hour, here to answer questions, and if possible, maybe a little song?"  He looked hopefully towards Kevin, when the door to the studio burst open, surprising everyone.

"Hey, we heard there were Backstreet Boys here."  Chris announced in a loud voice.

The DJ seemed a little stunned, then started to talk while the radio staff brought in extra chairs and mics.  "Uh, for everyone out there who hasn't figured it out yet, that was the voice of Chris Kirkpatrick.  This is quite a treat." His voice was getting noticeably excited.  "KWBC has the honor of having the 10 members of the two biggest boy bands right here in our studios.  Did you guys know they were coming?"

Kevin shook his head as he looked over his shoulder and smiled.  "Hey guys.  Didn't know you were in town.  I thought you were in Boston"  He looked at Lance and knew instantly that Philadelphia had not been part of their plans.  He was grateful for the other band's attempt to draw attention away from the Boys.

Joey settled into one of the additional seats that a staff hand brought in for the other group.  "We were passing by, had the radio on, and decided we had a free day, why not stop by and show you guys up."

AJ grinned at his friend, giving him a quick wink.  While NSync, Kevin and AJ kept the everyone's attention on them, Brian and Nick moved Howie to the side.  They wouldn't try anything as noticeable as getting him completely out of the interview, but they would ensure that no extra focus came his way.

*****

"Man, I never thought I'd be so happy to see your sorry asses in my life."  AJ draped an arm around Justin's shoulders, giving his a quick hug before releasing him. 

As soon as both bands had emptied out of the studio and onto one of NSync's busses, JC had rushed to Brian to talk about Howie's situation.  Chris had joined Nick and Howie to see how his friend was doing, making sure that Howie had the best seat on the overfull bus.  Kevin and Lance settled at the table to discuss the situation, and how the two teams should handle the new problems.

"Johnny called this morning.  Apparently the leaks are not coming from Jive.  But then again, we didn't really think it was an inside job."

Kevin settled into his seat feeling slightly confused.  The last 24 hours had been had been the worst since Brian's operation years earlier.  "You're saying that you guys had two jobs go bad," seeing Lance nod, "and now this job of ours went bad, and yet you're not surprised that it isn't from inside Jive?"

Lance nodded again.  "Our jobs, the way they went bad, it was like they were tipped after the job began.  They weren't sitting there waiting for us." 

Light dawned in Kevin's eyes.  "Lou."

Nodding again, Lance agreed.  "Lou."

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