Ami collapsed into the seat beside Darcie, dark sunglasses over her eyes, and a hat pulled low on her head. Darcie smirked as she watched Ami raise a water bottle to her lips, taking a deep drink.

“Rough night?” Darcie asked as the reports filed in and filled the seats around them.

“I never thought it was possible to feel as bad as this.” Ami muttered. “Did you know that Joey is the master at getting the bartenders and waitresses to give us drinks?”

Darcie giggled, “Oh yeah, the first time me and Justin got drunk was because of Joey. And it was the night before a flight to Germany.”

“God, I wouldn’t be able to do it.” Ami groaned.

“We almost didn’t, Justin and I sat by the bathrooms and were constantly in and out of them.” Darcie giggled.

Ami groaned again and gripped her head, “I don’t even want to think about it, the drive over here almost killed me.”

“Who drove?” Darcie asked.

“Justin.”

Darcie released a low whistle, “You’re a brave woman.”

“Excuse me ladies, are these seats taken?” A man asked as he slid into the isle with them.

“Uh, no, go ahead.” Darcie told him.

The man and his female partner slid into the two empty seats besides them and Darcie began wondering if anyone around them had caught the conversation she and Ami had been having. Chris had always warned her to be careful who she mentioned their friendship to and who she mentioned it around. Lately she had been really careless since their friendship was such a natural thing.

“So who are you girls representing?” The woman asked as she fiddled with her camera, “You seem a little young.”

“Oh, we won a contest.” Darcie said quickly, “We get to spend the day with NSYNC, watch them in interviews, watch them rehearse, that kind of thing.”

“Really?” The man beside her asked, “I should give you my card and then we can interview you two tomorrow and find out all about it.”

“Sorry, that’s not possible; we had to sign an agreement that we can’t give any interviews.” Ami told him.

Darcie stared at her friend, impressed that she was able to think so quickly considering the hang over she was suffering from. “That’s a shame, but take my card anyway, in case you feel like giving one anyway.”

Darcie rolled her eyes but took the card from him, shoving it in her pocket, “Yeah we’ll be sure to call you.”

Whatever the man was about to say to her was cut off by the guys entering the room.

~ * ~

“He’s playing with it again.” Ami whispered to Darcie.

Darcie’s eyes moved down the table to the end where Lance was sitting next to Joey. The poor guy looked extremely bored since the majority of the questions had been directed at Justin and JC. Lance dropped his name tag and started drumming his fingers on the table.

“Maybe we should ask him a question and save him from the boredom.” Darcie suggested.

“Oh Christ, now he’s playing with his pen.”

“I’m telling you man, he always has to play with something!” Ami stared at Darcie in shock, “What? Oh get your mind out of the gutter you perv.”

Ami’s shoulders began shaking, a sure sign that she was starting to giggle. Darcie glanced back at the table and saw Lance studying them both curiously, this time he was playing with his coffee mug. Darcie thought about what she said to Ami as one of Lance’s hands disappeared under the table, probably to scratch his leg.

The snort from beside her told her that Ami had definitely noticed that. Lance’s eyebrow arched as he continued to stare at the two of them, Ami’s giggling becoming contagious. Soon Darcie found herself unable to keep her own giggles from rising as Lance nudged Joey.

The man that had given Darcie his card glared at the two of them as Darcie leaned forward, her giggles escalating into full peals of laughter. She quickly climbed to her feet and slid past Ami, waving off the questioning looks the guys were giving her. She stepped out into the hallway and wiped at the tears that were in her eyes. Granted what had been said wasn’t all that funny, but the look on Lance’s face had been priceless.

“Sounds like you and your friend had a good giggle in there.”

Darcie gasped and looked towards the door to see the man she had been sitting besides coming out of the conference room. “Uh yeah, just something she said.”

He stepped up to her and extended his hand, “I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself, I’m Steve Gilmour.”

“Yeah, I gathered that from your card.” Darcie muttered, “I already told you, I’m not doing any interview.”

“That’s fine; I think I gathered enough information from today to write one hell of an article.”

Darcie’s eyebrow arched, “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I over heard you and your friend talking before I sat down.” Steve told her, “From the sounds of things you two seem to know the NSYNC guys pretty intimately.”

“Whatever relationship we have with the guys is our business, not yours.” Darcie muttered.

The door opened and people began streaming out of the room, a sure sign that the press conference was over. Darcie pushed herself away from the wall and started to move through the crowd back inside the room. She gasped as a hand closed around her arm.

“I could write an even better article with your help though.” He told her.

Darcie stared down at his hand, memories of the numerous times that Jeremy had grabbed her that way flashed through her mind. “Get your hand off of me.”

“Look I can pay you whatever you want; I just need some information about their upcoming tour and their plans for any new albums.”

“What you can do is get your hand off me right this minute.” Darcie said, trying to control her rising panic, “I’m not going to help you.”

“You’re throwing away a good opportunity for yourself.”

By now Darcie’s breath had quickened, and she turned to start prying at his fingers, “Please, you have to let go of me.”

Steve’s hand loosened, but instead of releasing her he grabbed both her shoulders. “Are you alright, you look a little pale.”

Darcie’s panic rose from mild anxiety to full on attack. She began pushing at Steve as hard as she could, trying to bite back the scream that was building up.

“Darcie?” Ami’s voice came from the doorway.

Darcie’s panic attack reached its breaking point and she began crying, trying to curl her body away from Steve. “Let me go!” She screamed at him.

“Chris!” Ami called into the room before running over to her friend.

Darcie felt the hands on her arms release her and she dropped to the floor wrapping her arms around herself. She could hear voices above her arguing as Ami knelt down beside her.

“I think we should take her home.” JC’s voice sounded in Darcie’s ear, making her look up.

JC was crouched beside Ami while Lance spoke to the reporter and the other three blocked Darcie from view. Darcie looked at him and nodded, letting him pull her to her feet. She sighed and leaned against him as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her out where their cars were waiting.

~ * ~

“What the hell happened back there?” JC demanded as Ami joined them in the rec room.

“She had a panic attack.” Chris said as he took the play station controller from Joey, “It’s something she gets from time to time.”

“Well what brought it on?”

“JC, you getting angry isn’t going to help any.” Ami said calmly as she sat down next to Justin. My guess is that guy cornering her set her off.”

“But she’s used to reporters,” Lance said, “We made sure to put her through the public relations training.”

“Him being a reporter didn’t have anything to do with it either.” Chris sighed as Justin reached over and plucked the controller from his hands.

“Then what?” Joey asked, “There’s obviously more to it then some guy being a little over zealous.”

“Over zealous?” Ami laughed, “He practically had her pinned against the fucking wall!”

The play station game was paused and five sets of eyes turned to look at her.

“Did you just drop an F Bomb?” Justin teased, “And here I thought that Darcie was the vulgar one.”

“I’m not laughing Justin.” Ami snapped.

“She does swear from time to time you know.” Darcie muttered as she entered the room.

“I thought I told you to stay in bed.” Ami said, standing up and going to stand in front of her friend.

“What are you my mom?” Darcie asked, “I’m just grabbing some water.”

Ami muttered under her breath as she followed Darcie into the kitchen, “You need to tell them what happened to you.”

“It’s none of their business.” Darcie muttered as she opened the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

“It’s going to be if you keep having panic attacks every time someone grabs you like that.” Ami told her, “And it’s not fair to me and Chris to have to constantly come up with a cover story.”

“I know, but how do I tell them what happened?” Darcie sighed.

“You have to at least tell JC, Chris and I can tell the others.”

“Why do I have to tell JC?” Darcie questioned.

“Because if you ever want a chance with him; he’s going to need to know what you’ve been through.” Ami told her, “And believe me, it’ll be better coming from you then me.”

Darcie sighed, “Fine I’ll tell him.”

“Good, you can tell him today.” Ami said, shoving her towards her room, “First you need to go and sleep.”