Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 21:24:54 +0000
From: Stephanie M
Subject: A Once In A Lifetime Love 3

Title: A Once In A Lifetime Love 3/?
Author Stephanie M
Pairing: Lance/AJ

Justin looked at the couple, unwilling to believe what he was seeing. He was
angry and jealous; Lance should be his and AJ kissing him. As he stared,
Justin vowed to make Lance see that AJ was the wrong person for him. Justin
wanted Lance, and would do anything and everything within his power to get
his friend. He was sure that Lance only needed someone to explain how bad AJ
was for him, and he would leave the Backstreet Boy. Justin felt sure that
only one good enough for Lance was him.

"Maybe we should leave them alone." Kevin suggested, feeling like he was
intruding on a private moment.

"Yeah, Kev and I are going to go and tell the doctor where AJ is." Joey said
as he gave Kevin a flirtatious grin.

Kevin just stared at Joey, then grinned back. He had to admit Joey was
certainly attractive, and had always come across as a decent guy. Kevin
simply smiled and started walking down the corridor with Joey.

"I've got to get out of here. I'll see you later." Howie said as he quickly
walked away from the room, Nick trailing after him.

"Want to call Lance's mom? She's bound to be worried if she caught the
news." JC said as he spied the look on Justin's face, confused at the
jealous look in Justin's eyes.

"Yeah, I promised I'd call when we found out what happened." Justin said as
he walked down the corridor, leaving JC to stare after him before running to
catch up with him.

Brian looked at Chris and could see that the other man was desperate for
something to do, something he could understand. Smiling at the worried
Chris, Brian said, "Want to go and talk? We need to think of something to
tell the fans."

"Yeah. Did you know about Lance and AJ?" Chris asked as the pair walked away
from the room, talking quietly.

"No. I knew AJ met someone about two years ago, but because he never said
anything I figured they had broken up."

"I can't believe I didn't know about them. I mean, what kind of friend am
I?" Chris said half to himself.

"None of us knew. I don't know about Lance but when AJ wants to keep a
secret, no one ever finds out at least from him." Brian said, stopping Chris
so that the other man could see the sincerity of his words.
*******
"Excuse me, but I need to talk to Mr Bass alone." A stern looking doctor
said as he woke the sleeping couple.

AJ looked at him for a few seconds, not knowing where he was. Then all the
images of the previous day flashed into his mind, on instinct he turned to
look at Lance. Seeing his boyfriend was okay, he looked back at the doctor
and realised he was in bed with Lance. His heart and mind knew that was
where he belonged, but he figured it probably wasn't a good way to keep
their relationship a secret.

"Okay, I'll just wake him up." AJ said briefly glancing at the doctor.
Turning back to Lance, he gently ran his hands through the blonde hair.
"James, babe. Time to get up."

Lance simply muttered and arched into AJ's fingers, the doctor narrowed his
eyes at his patients' response. Lance Bass wasn't acting how he expected
someone had just experienced major trauma to act, but he could see that AJ
was good for Lance.

"Come on, wake up baby. Someone needs to talk to you." AJ said, flashing the
doctor an embarrassed grin.

"No, comfy. Tell them to come back later." Lance complained as he nestled
into AJ's arms.

"James, we need to talk." AJ said, jumping a little when Lance froze
completely.

"What's wrong, love?" Lance said opening his eyes and looking at AJ. "You're
not in pain, are you?" Lance said worriedly as he searched AJ's face.

"I asked him to wake you up. I need to talk to you alone." The doctor said
to Lance, only briefly looking at AJ.

"Anything you want to say to me, you can tell Alex. He's my next of kin; we
filled in all the paperwork. You want me to get someone to get the papers
from the hotel?" Lance said as he glared at the doctor.

"No, that's quite alright. My name is Doctor Luc Merchant; I'm the head of
neurology. I've looked over your file and have some questions to ask you."
Seeing Lance's nod he continued, "What's your full name and the name of the
man beside you?"

"My name is James Lance Bass and the man beside me is my partner Alexander
James McLean." Lance replied quickly.

"Who's the President of the USA? What year is this?" Dr Merchant said,
writing notes on his chart.

"Bush is the President and its 2001." Lance said, wondering how long this
was going to continue.

"What's your job?" Dr Merchant asked, his voice revealing nothing.

"I'm a singer in a music group." Lance replied with a wide grin.

"Do you recognise the pictures of these four men?" The doctor asked as he
placed pictures of the other four members of Nysnc on the bed.

"That's Joey, Kevin introduced me to him a couple of hours ago. I don't know
any of the others." Lance said, not noticing the look of alarm on AJ's face.

"Do you recognise these four?" Dr Merchant asked this time placing pictures
of the other four Backstreet Boys on the bed.

"Of course I do. How could I forget the members of my own group? That's
Nick, Brian, Howie and Kevin. They are in the Backstreet Boys with me and
AJ." Lance said with a small laugh.

"What year did you join the Backstreet Boys?" Dr Merchant asked calmly.

"1996, after my old voice coach recommended me." Lance replied, a little
annoyed at all the questions.

Dr Merchant looked at Lance as he said, "Can you tell me the names of your
immediate family?"

"My parents are Diane and Jim Bass, I have one sister called Stacy." Lance
said sounding tired.

"I'll let you sleep. I'll look over the notes and tell you what I find
later." Doctor Merchant said a calm look on his face.

"I'm just going to call your mom, why don't you go to sleep? I'll be back in
a second, babe." AJ said tenderly as he walked out the room seconds after
the doctor left.

"Okay, but don't be gone too long." Lance replied as he closed his eyes.
*******
"Doc, what's wrong with him? His memories are all screwed up about Nsync but
he remembers everything else." AJ asked as he caught up with the doctor at
the nurse's station.

"Mr Bass has a type of amnesia; it's fairly common after a trauma. With this
type of amnesia the patient normally only has a gap within one area of their
memory and the memory they retain can be distorted. In this case he has
forgotten he was a member of Nsync and those members. As far as I can tell
he remembers his career in music but he simply thinks he joined the
Backstreet Boys instead." The doctor said quietly after making sure the
coast was clear.

"Will his memories return? How can I help him?" AJ asked desperate to do
something, anything to help the man he loved.

"The memories may never return but you should spend time with him and so
should the members of Nsync, sometimes familiar faces and places help people
to remember." The doctor said seconds before his pager beeped, flashing AJ
an apologetic grin, he ran towards the elevator.
*******
"Mrs Bass, I'm at the hospital. It turns out the news was right, Lance was
in an accident." Justin said into the phone, hearing Diane Bass gasp he
continued; "The doc seems to think Lance is going to be okay but he'll have
to stay in the hospital for a couple of days."

"Thanks for telling me Justin, I'm going to book a flight and come up to
take care of my son." Diane Bass said, making it clear that there would be
no discussion.

"Okay, I'll tell the others." Justin said as Diane Bass ended the call,
already thinking about arrangements that had to be made.

"How did she sound?" JC asked Justin, seeing the worried look in Justin's
eyes.

"She sounded okay, a little worried. She's going to get the next flight here
and take care of Lance." Justin replied with a grin; he knew Lance would
love having his mother with him.

"Did you tell her that Lance has lost his memory?" JC asked, noticing the
guilty look on Justin's face; he already knew the answer.

"No, I just couldn't tell her something like that through the phone." Justin
defended himself.

"Want to go and get something to eat?" JC offered, knowing that they
couldn't do anything to help Lance.

"Sure, but I don't want to talk to AJ, okay?" Justin replied hotly, hissing
out AJ's name. He didn't notice the look of enlightenment on JC's face as
they walked down the hall.

Ten minutes after they left the secluded relatives room, AJ walked in.
Picking up the phone he dialled a number from memory; hoping that he
wouldn't have to be away from Lance too long.

"Diane, it's AJ. I'm at the hospital with James, we were in a crash." AJ
said as he heard the familiar sound of Diane Bass's voice.

"I know son, Justin called me. How are you, really?" Diane Bass said her
voice comforting and soft.

"Not too good. James has amnesia; he thinks he's a member of Backstreet and
can't remember any of Nsync. He got both his legs broke and his spleen was
ruptured. The doctor said that the best thing is to have familiar faces." AJ
answered, his voice full of fear and pain.

"Now that you've told me about Lance, tell me how you are. I'm going to come
and care of you and Lance, I'll be there by tomorrow morning. Don't worry
about coming to pick me up, I'll meet you at the hospital."

"I'm okay now that I know Lance is alive. When I woke up no one would tell
me anything, Kevin looked in on him for me. He guessed who I meant when I
was asking for James, I haven't told the others. I just need someone to hold
me and let me know that everything is going to be okay." AJ said crying into
the phone.

"It'll be okay, Alex. Where you hurt in the crash?" Diane asked, shocked
that AJ was moving around.

"I was stabbed in the stomach; I'm not supposed to be out of bed yet but I
sneaked out to see James. I was just so scared that he was really dead and
no one was telling me the truth. James was hurt the worse, because the car
hit his side. I wish it was me that was hurt."

"Don't talk like that. I'm coming to take care of you, I'll be there soon."
Diane Bass said, praying that God would let them all come through the latest
crisis.

"Thanks mom. I'll see you later, love you." AJ said as he ended the call.
*******
"Howie, should we tell them?" Nick asked quietly, looking around the
cafeteria.

"Not yet, wait until everything has settled down a little. We should go and
see how Lance is doing." Howie replied his voice full of worry.

The pair looked up as they felt someone approach, seeing Brian and Chris
they relaxed and smiled at their friends. The four friends sat in silence to
worried about Lance and AJ to make small talk.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Justin asked cockily.

"The more the merrier, have you heard anything about Lance?" Nick answered
willing to forget everything that had happened between them.

"No, but we're going to see Lance soon." JC answered, taking a drink from
his can of Pepsi.

"They probably won't appreciate the interruption, we should let them have
some time alone." Joey said as he and Kevin sat down, making them all the
jump.

"They need each other right now, more than we can probably imagine." Kevin
said, smiling as Joey gripped his hand under the table.

"Lance doesn't need AJ. What he needs is his friends, that means us!" Justin
shouted, thankfully there were very few people in the room with them.

"Yeah, but he also needs the person he loves." Brian said hotly, knowing
that it would probably do more harm than good of they tried to separate
Lance and AJ.

"Let's just go up and see how they are doing." Brian said determinedly.

The eight quickly stood and walked towards the elevators; not noticing the
confused stares. The ride up to their friend's floor was done in complete
silence; each one taking the time to try and organise their thoughts.
*******
"What are they doing in the same room!?" Justin said in confusion as he saw
that Lance and AJ were lying next to each other in two separate beds. He
couldn't believe that the hospital was allowing this.

"Would you calm down? I don't care who you are, if you disturb my patients
I'll have you banned from this hospital." Dr Elise Smith said as she walked
over, her face full of anger.

"They are in the same room because their medical records state that they are
in effect married. It helps if the significant other is placed in the same
room, that way they don't spend their whole time trying to sneak into each
other's rooms; as I believe happened earlier. It was stated in their medical
records that if they were both injured they were to be placed in the same
room; and I for one respect my patients' wishes." Dr Smith said calmly,
glaring at each one.

"Is it okay if we talk to them?" Howie asked looking over at the couple.

"No it is not. They were both in severe pain; I gave them medication to help
with the pain and to help them sleep. Come back in the morning; and if it's
not too much trouble, get rid of the press."

"Can you tell them we were here?" Joey said with a smile.

The doctor just nodded and waited for them to leave. As they rode the
elevator down to the car park Kevin thought over the very unusual events
that had occurred. Kevin couldn't help but feel a little envious of the
pair, they seemed so happy together. When he had spoken to them; their first
concern had been for the other. Looking at Joey, Kevin wondered if this time
he might have found the man for him.