"In light of recent events and surgery that have grounded singing sensation Audrina Littrell for weeks after a life-threatening heart attack that nearly took her life, Littrell has spent the last eight weeks out of the spotlight. In the confines of her own home and rehabilitation centers, she has been getting her body back on track for the world tour that had been planned months before the life saving surgery. Littrell, who has not been seen by the media and fans alike since, finally surfaced last night at the album release party for her boyfriend, Backstreet Boy AJ McLean.

Littrell, looking subdued and dressed for the occasion, was seen shifting from foot to foot throughout the entire night. The singer seems to be uneasy to re-enter the pop life after she nearly lost her own."

Our own guest correspondent, Aubrey O'Day, who is now performing on Broadway as Amber in Hairspray, weighs in on Littrell, who is also one of her closest friends.

"Hi, E!"

Audrina turned her head from lying on her side on the couch, shifting her legs from AJ's lap as she watched her friend, completely dressed in character, addressed the public. "She looks beautiful."

"She does," AJ agreed, squeezing her hand as she sat up next to him. "Broadway was just waiting for her."

She nodded, eyes glued to her friend as she talked to Ryan Seacrest about her.

"She's doing well; it'd be a lie to say she came out of the surgery just the same, because she didn't. I don't know of many people who would, given the circumstances -"

"And those circumstances would be her almost dying on the table." Ryan interrupted her, Aubrey nodding from the larger image of herself, while Ryan was in a picture-in-picture.

"They had difficulties, and like her, we've all been trying to grasp the fact that she almost wasn't with us anymore. But she is and we're all so, so grateful for that. She was sad for a while, knowing that she had this scar as a permanent reminder, but she had us all behind her and she seems to have perked up a lot. She's been very social, very bubbly around friends, but the whole publicity thing scares her a bit. She doesn't want to be bombarded with questions that she, herself doesn't even want to ask. She wants to put that all aside and just move on and be healthy and take care of herself. That's what we all want."

"So she's been cleared?"

"The doctor said he's never seen her healthier."

"And what about her love life? She has been hot and heavy with AJ McLean for months now. Is she still on speaking terms with JC Chasez?"

Audrina tensed, putting a fingernail to her mouth as she watched Aubrey inhale slowly. She, along with Aundrea and JC himself, were the only three that knew of what had happened in the weeks prior.

"You okay?"

She turned, looking at AJ and giving him a nod. "I'm fine. I just don't like people asking about my personal business."

"Who does, honey," he asked, it a rhetorical question as she nodded, turning her head back as he ran his hand soothingly up and down her leg.

"She and AJ are still together, as you stated, they were just seen together at his album release. As for she and JC, they're still respectful, they still care about each other. He's going on tour with her in two weeks so they have to get along for that." Aubrey chuckled slightly, Audrina noticing the uneasiness flash in her eyes. "I think there are more important things in their lives that they have to deal with besides touring -"

She got up, AJ jumping at her sudden movement. "You all right?"

"Yeah," she said, crossing her arms over her chest as he surveyed her, confused. "I just feel all jittery. I think it was that tea I had this morning. Caffeine does that to me."

"All right," he said, getting up and running his hands up and down her arms, studying her face. "If you're sure ..."

"I am," she nodded, eyes fluttering closed when he placed a kiss to her lips, his warm to her cool, chapped ones. She had been on edge since the event with JC happened, constantly licking her lips and now, it was showing. "I think I'm going to go sit at the piano and write."

"Well, I have to get going," he said, eyes still burning into hers as she tried to look elsewhere but at him. The guilt was killing her; he knew something was going on behind her eyes, but he couldn't pinpoint it. "I've got a meeting with producers to mix one of my songs for a video. Call me later?"

She nodded, closing her eyes tightly, keeping her emotions at bay as his lips pressed to her forehead, walking past her. She kept her eyes shut, envisioning him walking through her home and out the door, the gentle click of the door signalling he had left. Sighing deeply and pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes forcefully to keep the tears at bay, she cried out in frustration, walking through her kitchen and living room, heading for the door that led her to the studio that she had built in the basement. It was used only rarely, she always using JC's or AJ's or just going into the city herself to record. Now, now wasn't any different. She wasn't recording, she was just playing.

She shut and locked the studio door behind her, not wanting anyone to disturb her in the middle of her mope and pity session, it only a party of one. She opened up the glass door, looking in at the piano, acoustic guitars and drumset that sat in front of her. Immediately, she stepped towards the piano, sitting down and pressing down, the chord striking a familiar memory. One that brought her back to when she was not even twenty, just a baby in her adult eyes now, so young and innocent and so naive.

She pushed her hands roughly to the keys, annoyed with herself. She made a mistake. A horrible mistake with someone she should have just gotten rid of from her life a long time ago and now memories were all flooding back with him in it and she couldn't shake him. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was betraying herself in some way that she didn't even know.

He lay in bed, one arm underneath his head supporting it as he stared at the ceiling. He was supposed to be packing to get ready to leave for Chicago where he and Audrina would be doing one week of rehearsal before doing a show in that very venue the night after. But, there he was, lying around with clothes sprawled out all around him as if his suitcases had thrown them up, emotionless, blank.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt like it was pointless to even be around her. Why? So she could just practice her silent treatment on him some more? So that when she looked at him, it felt as if ice were going through his body? She called it a mistake, he called it reason. It happened, not because of it being a mistake on his part, but it was a reason. They belonged together. He knew it, and nearly the entire world knew it, too. The only regret he had was that it happened in the form of adultry. It happened on a whim, something that he just had to do, otherwise he'd regret it.

And he didn't. He didn't regret anything that dealt with her.

Except for leaving.

His life was dull without her; lollygagged just as much as a toddler did when they knew it was bathtime. Life just happened as he sat back and watched, going through the motions without emotions and just let himself grin and bear it. Life with her had meaning; it brought a smile to his face. Now, he could care less to smile, could care less about anything. She made him happy and his happiness was gone.

Maybe he'd find love again. But he didn't see it happening; not when he was still so in love with the woman whose heart he broke, breaking his own in the process. In order to find love, he'd have to get over her. There was where his problem lie: he didn't want to stop loving her. He didn't want to get over her. She was it for him. He had known it from the start; had known it the day he spotted her at their video shoot, in the video that that was the end of him as he knew it. His life would consist of his music, her and the two of them together. That was all that mattered.

It was hot, he had noted. All the bodies crammed into a small space for the shot made for a humanized sauna. Justin, basking in the glory of not being in the crowd and sitting in the director's chair as they spoke; Lance still in his trailer getting ready; Joey being Joey and hamming it up while he watched Wade "Joe-ify" himself to perform in the dance break since Joey still hadn't healed from his previous injury; Chris being the womanizer and macking on the girls like it was his career. They were all smiling, laughing it up while he felt like ripping his clothes off and streaking through the shoot towards his trailer where he could just throw himself into the refrigerator that was large enough to feed a family of 50.

The only thing that brought a smile to his face that day was the phone call he had gotten from Audrina, who was shooting her own music video for 'Not To Me', a song that she hated but management had decided to release anyway. She had complained about the song, told him she had dyed her hair for the shoot, and had been made into a 'Bubblegum Tart' in a pair of low-riding leather pants and a tanktop that said 'Flirt' on the front.

"I'm twenty-two, JC. Not 16. I'm not selling sex. I'm not them."

"Just think of it as acting, baby," he had said, laughing slightly as he pictured her on the other end, standing with the phone at her ear and lip jutted out in a pout. "Just, acting. Wrap the video and come be with me. Keep me sane before Justin and Chris go at it again."

"Argh, they fighting again?"

"Yeah," JC said, shaking his head. "He wants to work on his solo stuff so bad and Chris keeps telling him he's betraying us."

"What do you think?"

"I think that he's twenty-years-old, he should be able to do something he wants as a person ... as long as it makes him happy."

She gave a hum of agreement, he hearing them call his name so they could go over the video. "I have to go."

"Okay," she smiled, "have fun. But not too much fun. Don't let any girl take advantage of you," she teased as he laughed. "I might kill her ..."

"You know you're the only one who can do that."

She laughed. "All right, go. Go before they kill you for holding up the schedule."

"I love you," he said softly, "three months being in the same state and not seeing you is killing me, Rina."

"I know, me too," she agreed. "I love you, too, baby. Now ... go!"

He hung up with her shortly after, shoving the phone into his back pocket and jogged off towards the set, already hearing Joey mocking him.

And now, here he was, standing in the beginning of a very hot, very small tunnel, waiting to walk through it and have nameless girls grope at him and make pretend advancements in an act of seduction. An act of 'dirty pop', as the director had stated, a wicked grin on his face. It hit him then that he knew he was crazy about her when the thought of other women touching him bothered him, worried of what she would think.

To make matters even more screwed up, she'd probably get a thrill out of seeing him all uncomfortable with the women all over him because that was how she was.

He heard the beats to cue him, seeing the camera zoom in on his face as he started to sing, forgetting all about the heat, all about the hands and concentrated on the song. Concentrated on strutting through the tunnel and flirting every so often, more so addressing the camera, addressing the audience that was behind it.

He felt hands all over his body. Felt them trail and linger down his stomach, his chest, over his back, his shoulders. He felt a hand cup his chin as he turned to look at the girl and then back at the camera, eyes scanning the body of a light brown-haired woman, dressed in a white tanktop, a purple jacket and dark low-rise jeans as she turned in a full circle in front of him, ending up against the wall. His eyes met hers and he couldn't help but grin as he recognized her.

Audrina.

He tried to maintain the focus he had, quickly shaking the grin off of his face and barely hiding the shiver he felt when her hand skirted from in his hair and down his chest as the girls had, fingers delicately playing downward on the side of him, she rolling her body as she arched away from the wall, hips rocking into him. Focus, he needed to focus.

"Cut!"

He stopped singing, mouth still slightly agape from being mid-sentence from the chorus, turning his head quickly and seeing her, standing on her tiptoes to see his excited expression. He laughed as her body dropped from sight, seeing her weave her way through all the conversing extras and jumped on him, her legs wrapping around his torso and he wrapping his arms around her waist as he kissed her. "How the hell did you get here?" He asked, laughing as she dropped from up on him.

"The shoot finished up early," she shrugged, holding his hands and swinging them idly inbetween them. "Happy to see me?"

"Did you not see my expression when I realized it was you," he asked, laughing and reaching up and tugging on her locks. "You did color your hair."

"Only temporary," she replied. "I prefer being blonde or redhead."

"I prefer us being alone, but I don't see that happening anytime soon," he mumbled, placing a kiss to her lips and groaning as he pulled away, hearing Justin and Chris going at it again; this time about Justin's 'solo' time at the end of the video. "I prefer being away from here, too."

"Away is nice," she agreed, turning her head to look where he was, eyebrows furrowing in disbelief. "Hey! Dumb and Dumber! Cut the kid stuff already!"

Justin and Chris both stopped arguing, turning towards the voice that had hollered at them. "Hey!" They both yelled out in unison, Justin stepping away from Chris and away from the argument and jogging up to her, hugging her tightly, Chris doing the same shortly after. "What are you doing here?"

"Video is wrapped, so I came here to watch."

"And give me a heart attack," JC chuckled. "She was in the tunnel!"

"What? No way!"

"Yeah. Go see for yourself," he said, gesturing over to the director who was now playing back JC's shot. Justin and Chris both walked away, wanting to see. "At least I'm almost done."

"Aw, it'll be over before you know it," she smiled, squeezing his hand as Joey called him, she walking over towards where Justin and Chris were, watching with them as they laughed at JC's reaction to identifying the woman that he had should have known all along but didn't recognize because of her hair.

"We've gotta get those two boxing gloves or something," Joey noted as JC approached him, nodding. "Pretty soon, I think that's what it's going to go down to."

"You know, I'm hoping for the best, but I think so too, Joe. They can't even stand to be in the same room anymore."

"I'm just trying to bask in all the glory we have left," Joey said softly, "I have a feeling this isn't going to last much longer."

"Joe -"

"I'm serious, Jace. Look at him. Justin, I mean. He's wanted to do this solo thing for so long and now he has his chance. He's not going to let it go and I know he's going to be successful. Why stop a good thing? He's going to keep pursuing bigger and better and we're all going to be left in the dust. I just pray that if you decide to go on after this, you will be just as, if not more successful than him."

"Joey, we're not going anywhere."

"Ugh, I wouldn't believe that if I were you," Joey said, patting him gently on the shoulder as he limped away, walking towards his spot on set so they could film him in the midst of the crowd. "It won't be the end of the world, JC," Joey said as he stopped, looking at his older friend, "it'll only be the beginning."

JC nodded, watching Joey sit about a hundred feet away from him, his eyes traveling towards Audrina who had become the center of attention, standing in between Justin and Chris as the three of them laughed and carried on like nothing had just happened between the two men. He smiled. It may or may not have been the end of the group, but he only saw her in his future.

She was it. She was what he had been waiting for his entire life.

He clenched his eyes shut, feeling her hands skirt down his body as if it were yesterday. It was then that he made the decision: they were made for each other and if she didn't see that, he'd prove it to her, no matter how long it took.