*2 weeks earlier*

Rachel leaned back to look at the easel in front of her. She tilted her head to the left and then to the right taking in the people in the drawing. Biting her lip she raised her right hand touching her colored pencil to the paper before her. After adding another line here and shading a couple parts there, she dropped her hand again to study.

"Are you finished?"

She gave a small cry and nearly fell from the stool she was sitting on. Whirling it around, she glared at the owner of the voice. JC stood behind her wearing his ever present black jeans paired with a plain black t-shirt. A smirk graced his features knowing he had scared her. "I told you not to do that when I was working!" She scolded him, waving her colored pencil at him.

"I made sure you weren't in the middle of drawing," JC put his hands up in an innocent manner. Though his smirk told her he wasn't all that innocent. "Trust me; I remember what happened the last time."

"You ruined my picture! I spent hours fixing it!"

JC rolled his eyes, dropping his hands. "It was not hours. It was fifteen minutes tops. I think you're confusing how you yelled at me for hours for 'ruining' it." He air quoted the word. "Which I didn't by the way. Ruin it. It still hangs in my parents' living room. Tyler stopped questioning why his left eye slants awhile ago."

Rachel growled at JC even as he giggled. The glare she sent his way did nothing to deter his laughter. The drawing he'd been referring to was a present she had given JC's parents, Roy and Karen, nearly ten years ago as an anniversary present; a portrait of all three kids: JC, Heather and Tyler. While she'd been working on it, JC had sneaked up behind her. He hadn't meant to scare her; she'd just been so lost in the drawing that when he spoke, she nearly had a heart attack. Unfortunately at the time she'd been working on Tyler's eyes. The scare caused her to draw erratically, messing up the left eye.

"Joking." He grinned and folded his arms on the back of Rachel's stool, which also doubled as one of his bar stools. He'd long since given up putting the chair back at the bar when she wasn't using it. It was a permanent fixture in the room Rachel claimed as her studio. "Is it finished?"

"I think so," Rachel said, leaning back, dropping her head down on JC's shoulder. Letting her eyes close. She'd been working on the drawing - a birthday present for Lance - for most of the morning. A drawing of he and the regular people on his daily radio show. Lance sat in his chair behind the desk with the microphone in front him and the main 'peanuts' that graced the radio waves gathered around him: Lisa, his personal assistant, the writer of the show Drew, and of course Michael, Lance's fiancée. Along the bottom of the drawing - almost like graffiti on the desk - were the words 'Dirty Pop with Lance Bass'.

"I'm proud of you," JC said letting her rest on him as he looked at the work of art in front of him; at the insane amount of detail Rachel had put into the drawing. This was definitely one of her best works yet and that was saying something. He loved all her pieces. "You finished his birthday present a full two weeks early. That has to be some sort of record. You're usually running around at the last minute trying to find something."

Rachel reached around the chair poking JC in the side, causing him to dance away from the chair. Losing her headrest, she sat up. "Did you need something or did you just come to bother me?"

"Bother you." JC shrugged.

"Figured and I'm not done. I still need to get it framed," she eyeballed the drawing mentally calculating roughly how big it ended up being. It would have to be a custom frame job. The measurements weren't one of those commercially sold. That was fine with her, this way she could pick a frame that went with not only the drawing but Lance's decor well; which was pretty much nonexistent at the moment since he was still waiting for the contractor to finish with his house.

"Ahhh..." JC nodded a teasing grin on his lips. "So this will be like any other year. You'll be running around on the third trying to get this framed."

"What are you getting me?" Rachel asked, slightly changing the subject. She didn't want to acknowledge that JC would probably be right. This year she had vowed to be different considering the year before her birthday present to her twin brother had been a week late. "After all, it is my birthday as well."

"Well I was gonna surprise you this year..."

"You're giving me a raise?" Rachel asked hopefully, her eyes sparkling. If she wanted to get technical, drawing was just a hobby. She did do custom pieces when she was asked, but it mainly a hobby. Being JC's personal assistant was her actual job. It's the one that paid the bills. Not that she had a lot living with JC but it kept her stash of Hershey bars well stocked and her Kindle loaded with trashy romance novels.

"I don't think so; your last performance review wasn't all that great."

"Wasn't all that great!" Rachel scoffed. "I am the best damn personal assistant out there."

"You wouldn't pick up take out last night."

"It was midnight!" Her voice rose. "I was already in my pajamas and half asleep on the couch."

"You refuse to watch Star Wars with me."

"Big deal," she rolled her eyes. "You refuse to watch Steel Magnolias, Grease, Dirty Dancing..."

"You've seen them a million times!"

"Classics."

"And Star Wars isn't?"

"No," she slid off the stool and started putting her pencils away; thankful to be done as her fingers were starting to cramp.

"I oughta fire you for saying that."

"You would never fire me. I know all your deep dark secrets; ones you don't want blabbed to TMZ and Perez Hilton."

"You would never." JC eyed her.

"I already have a book deal in place." She shrieked when JC lunged for her and quickly moved out of the way. The box of colored pencils dropped from her hands as she ran from the room. JC gave chase.

He caught her in the living room tackling her down on the couch. He fell on top of her mindful of her kicking legs. A well placed kick was sure to end the fun. Using his weight to hold her down, he set about tickling her sides causing her to yell louder. She struggled harder against him in the midst of laughing.

"Jaaayceeee...." Rachel yelled. A tear slipped free rolling down her cheek until a shake of her head had it being wiped away by the cushion below her. She reached her arm back, trying desperately to gain some sort of upper hand. JC may be skinny, but he was hard to dispel.

"Ow!" It was JC's turn to yell and he stopped tickling to rub his calf. "You pulled my leg hair!" Her giggles were muffled by the couch cushions. He narrowed his eyes, staring at the back of her head. Their wrestling had caused her blonde hair to come lose from its messy bun.

"S-sorry JC."

"I don't believe you," he rubbed his calf again. "You play dirty."

"I've been pulling that move since I was seventeen. Your fault. You're slipping in your old age."

"Old age?" JC's eyes widened. His hand left his calf to walk two fingers up and down her side. He could already feel her quivering, waiting for his attack. "Need I remind you whose birthday is in two weeks?"

"Yeah, but even with that birthday I'm still gonna be younger than you. And your birthday is not that far away either."

"That's right," he mused. "What are you getting me?"

"Backstreet Boys tickets." She yelped when JC started tickling her again. The attack was worse than before. He showed no mercy. Her struggles were fruitless and tears rolled down her cheeks. She gulped for breath even as she pleaded with him to stop.

"Do you want us to come back later?"

JC looked over his shoulder at the voice and met the amused expression of Jimmy Harry. Jimmy was a long time friend. They had worked together years ago on music before coming up with the idea to start their own version of K-Pop in the United States. Unlike some of the K-Pop groups from Asia who had over forty members, theirs only had eleven. Behind him stood Addison Wright, a songwriter they'd been working with on a couple new songs for their group, Girl Radical. She looked less than amused.

"She said Star Wars wasn't a classic."

Jimmy laughed shaking his head watching as JC climbed off the couch and extended a hand to help Rachel to her feet. When he first became friends with JC - and subsequently Rachel - there had been a bet with a few people in their circle of when Rachel and JC would finally hook up. (Not that JC and Rachel ever knew to his knowledge.) Year after year went by and nothing ever happened. He wasn't sure what the hold up was; he was sure the feelings were there. He was starting to lose hope his two friends would ever see what was in front of them. It was obvious to everyone.

"I oughta quit," she huffed pulling the hair tie from her hair after most of it had fallen free. After putting the hair tie on her wrist, she ran her fingers through her hair and hoped it didn't look like a hot mess.

Jimmy laughed. "He wouldn't be able to function without you."

"Right," JC drew out rolling his eyes. Though he half feared it was true. He'd met Rachel after Lance had joined *NSYNC. While Lance had moved to Orlando to be in the band, Rachel stayed back in Mississippi with their father and older sister Stacy. Lance's mother, Diane, moved to Orlando with her son and came with them to Europe. Once they had returned from Europe to stay in the United States, Rachel moved to Orlando. She and Lance had a close relationship. Being separated had been rough of them both. She finished out her senior year of high school doing correspondence courses like Lance. She toured with them becoming sort of their keeper. She kept their schedule and made sure they got to where they needed to be. She booked flights and taxied them to the airport. She was also the one they'd send into gas stations when they wanted munchies and didn't want to be noticed. Sometimes they even used her to help them pick up girls.

While she did so much for them, she'd never been on any pay roll. Their management team already had people doing what Rachel did for them. It had taken one instance where Rachel had gotten sick with the flu and was banished to Orlando so she wouldn't get any of them sick for them to realize how much she did and how lost there were without her. Even though management refused to put her on the pay roll, the five of them had gotten together and paid her a generous salary from their own pockets.

Once *NSYNC went on hiatus, everyone went off doing their own thing. JC wanted to try his hand at solo artistry. He was hesitant to ask Rachel to go with him. After all, she had lived a hectic life just as they had the previous five years. Figuring she would want to go back home, he made it seem like she didn't have to take his offer. He acted as though he didn't want her to come on board with him, passed it off that it was cool if she didn't, but on the inside he was begging.

There were so many reasons JC didn't think she'd accept his offer. The first being she had lived on the road for years and he thought she might like to move back to Mississippi to be with her family. Stacy had married and started a family. Her grandparents were older. The second was Lance. If she worked for him, he wouldn't be around Lance anymore. Lance would be off doing his own thing - in other states. He wasn't sure if Rachel would be able to not be close to her brother.

The answer had been yes. Eventually. She made him wait while she thought about it but she had said yes. It had been one of the best decisions he made with his solo career. When he allowed himself to wallow in the disaster of those few years, it had been the best decision. Not a lot of things went right during his solo attempt, but Rachel had been right. She fought for him tooth and nail, going above and beyond her job description to get him things he didn't think he deserved. She had his back when no one else did. If everyone was against him, he knew that she would always be in his corner. Even all she was, she couldn't do anything about being fired from the record label.

Ten years was a long time with someone. Their relationship had changed early on. No longer did he consider her his personal assistant then friend. She was his best friend who happened to be his personal assistant. They had been through so much together; knew things about each other others didn't know. He wasn't sure what he'd do without her.

"I keep telling him that," Rachel grinned. Her smile faltered when Addison fell into step next to JC leaving her to walk with Jimmy as they made their way to the studio JC had set up in their house. "Do you need assisting?"

"Ready to punch the clock?" Jimmy asked. He saw the look Rachel gave Addison and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 'Maybe we should start the bet up again.' He thought. He'd been noticing looks between Addison and Rachel ever since the other woman graced their circle a couple weeks ago. He was certain they'd never be best friends.

JC snorted as he gathered the papers to the half finished song they'd worked on a couple days before. "She hasn't punched it yet this morning."

"I'll take that as a no." Rachel stood to the side as she watched JC, Jimmy and Addison getting things set up to start working. She clenched her jaw seeing Addison take a seat next to JC. Too close in her opinion. It was on the tip of her tongue to offer JC's lap to Addison and she quickly had to bite it back. The green monster was getting worse.

"Big plans?" Jimmy wanted to tell Rachel she had nothing to worry about. JC never accepted Addison's advances during their writing sessions. He was completely focused on writing the whole time. When their sessions were done and Addison tried to get him to go out, JC always declined.

"You should get your drawing framed."

Rachel made a face. "I wanna leave it sit and look at it with fresh eyes later to see if I need to do something else."

JC shook his head, knowingly.

"What?"

"There is nothing that needs to be done. It's perfect. Take it and get it framed. Lance'll die from shock that you actually have his present ready on time."

"Remind me again why I put up with you?"

"Cause I was your favorite?" JC looked up, his blue eyes sparkling as he winked at her.

"Favorite pain in the ass maybe."

"Brat."

"You love me."

'I do.'

*~*

"She didn't have to leave," Jimmy said after Rachel finally left them to their writing. "She could have stayed."

"She's heading to Lance's for Dirty Pop," JC explained moving his keyboard to the coffee table. He smiled appreciatively at Addison when she moved the papers cluttering the table. "Thanks."

"No problem," Addison smiled battering her eyelashes. She started to straighten the papers in her hands when she noticed what was on them. Drawings. Mostly of JC but she recognized Jimmy in one and some of the girls from Girl Radical. When she first picked them up, she thought they were scraps of papers with JC's song musings on them; bits and pieces of lyrics, song bites. She didn't know it was Rachel's mess. She gritted her teeth.

To get anywhere with JC she had to make nice with his personal assistant. That nearly killed her. She hadn't liked the woman from the moment she met the blonde. She wasn't sure why Rachel lived with JC. They were friends, she knew that, but to live together... she wasn't too sure. Assuming there was something more going on between them, she'd gone snooping in the house and discovered separate bedrooms. Of course it didn't mean a thing; those could have been a ruse. A display to ward off questions they didn't want to answer.

She coined herself very good at reading body language. JC and Rachel didn't act like lovers. They were close friends - very close - but she bet they didn't sleep together. Probably never have. Oh but they wanted to she could tell. She saw the looks Rachel sent JC. She could read what was in her eyes when she stared. Rachel wanted JC.

That was not going to happen. Not if Addison had anything to do with it. Some might have said it was pure luck that she had been asked to write with JC and Jimmy. Luck had nothing to do with it. She had tried and failed many times to get JC to notice her. The only way he showed any interest in her was when he found out she could write songs and write them well. A couple of her songs had just landed in the top 40. With a career starting to pay off it was time to land a man. There was no stopping her from landing the man beside her. Snagging the last remaining bachelor from *NSYNC would no doubt elevate her status within the business.

Mrs. JC Chasez!

She'd have access to elbows she never thought she'd have access to rub. Social circles would become more known, filled with people who could take her higher and farther than where she was presently. Doors would open for her. And if it just so happened that *NSYNC reunited in the midst... well... she wouldn't be complaining. With everyone's eyes on the group, she could capitalize on the press and have people coming for her songs. If she could get the group to cut one of them - even better. She smirked. She knew she'd be able to talk JC into it. No one could resist her. She'd have him wrapped around her finger, eating from the palm of her hand soon.

Looking down at the drawing she narrowed her eyes at the blonde sitting on a royal throne. It was obviously drawn as a joke. Rachel was sitting on a throne with her legs tossed over the arm. A king's crown sat on top of her head. In front of the throne, stood JC, dressed in a jesters outfit; complete with the pointy hat and pointy elf-like shoes.

"What is that?" Jimmy snatched the top drawing from Addison's pile and started laughing as he took in the picture. "Oh God! This is hilarious!"

"She is such a brat. I was trying to write yesterday and she was being a pain in the ass. Her whining and bellyaching would have made her nephews proud. It was sad really," JC explained a smile on his face. "She wanted to go out and do something; I wanted to work. That was her retaliation."

"I'm gonna have her frame this for me," Jimmy chuckled as JC took the drawing from his hands.

"She's drawn worse," JC shrugged shaking his head at the photo. He took the rest of the papers from Addison's hands. "She's drawn me as a marionette and she was the puppeteer working the strings. I've been the evil stepmother while she was Cinderella. She's made me short, fat and bald. A fire breathing dragon..."

"And she still works for you?" Addison asked in disgust.

JC smiled fondly as he looked down at the picture once more. This one was pretty funny. He needed to remember to tell her when he saw her later that it would have been better if she'd been dangling the crown on the tip of her finger and had him juggling. "Yup."

'That's it,' Addison thought seeing the look on JC's face. 'Rachel had to go.'