Set Adrift - Second Chances 6 Author: Jezebel the Temptress Feedback: eh_oh_po@yahoo.com
Disclaimers: This is fiction. Ben and Sully are figments of my imagination and The Backstreet Boys are strangers to me and not gay. This has not truth to it. This is for adults only, that's over 18 or 21, depending on your country.
The meeting went on for most of the day. There was a lot to discuss, including some air to clear between the two groups. Some things had been said in the early days that caused a lot of distress in the past years but now the ten of them needed to work together and that meant putting aside any petty arguments in favour of winning.
Sully watched all of this in amazement, watching as years of bickering were put away and new friendships were formed. It wasn't going to happen overnight but it might happen over the coming weeks. He had once heard someone say "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." - it seemed to fit here too. Backstreet and Nsync had been rivals for as many years as they had been famous and now they were getting along to put down a common enemy. Sully felt a small sense of pride that he had put this together and couldn't help thinking that with this much support he might just win.
"The thing that we have to remember is that Blackmail can only succeed if you let it. If someone thinks they have something to hold over your head then they can use that to obtain an advantage. But, if they don't have anything, then they can't use it against you." Lance said eloquently.
"Lou knows about Sully and I." Alex replied. "I'd say that is a pretty big thing."
"Not unless you allow it to be." Lance replied earnestly. "If you're scared of that secret coming out then you let him win, but if you don't care, or at least show him that you don't care then he can't use it."
"I am scared that it will come out." Alex answered. He was met with a few frowns and realised that he had to clarify his statement. "I'm not ashamed of Sully and I, or of what we share, but I don't want to ruin the careers of my friends just because I come out. Teenage girls don't care what you do as long as you're obtainable. If I'm gay then I'm hardly that."
"I think that you underestimate your fans, or perhaps you overestimate your own popularity." Lance said, still playing devil's advocate. He had a point. There were four others in the group, and if Alex was honest then Nick and Brian were both more popular than him too.
"What do the rest of you think about this?" Alex asked. He knew that he couldn't make decisions for the rest of his group, or for the rest of the people involved. They needed to get everyone's opinions if this was going to work.
"You know that we support you in whatever you do." Howie said, being the best friend that Alex could wish for, just as he had been when AJ was in rehab.
"I'll support you if you decide to come out." Nick said. "But I don't know if I am ready to come out to the world yet myself."
There was a slight gasp and Nick saw that Justin was a little taken aback by his admission. He had assumed that they all knew that he was gay, seeing as they knew about AJ and Sully, but he must have been mistaken.
"Well, you've just told a few more people." Ben said with a small smile as he reached over to take Nick's hand and show the others that he was with Nick. "Hopefully it gets easier each time." He said quieter, just for Nick's ears. Ben knew what Nick was going to face later that day, or the next, when he told his mother and family and he hoped that it would be easy on Nick because he had friends for whom it had not been so.
"I'm not sure." Kevin said. "I support your choice to be with Sully but I'm not sure if you're fully prepared for the coverage that this could get."
"Kev, I've faced public interest over my stay in rehab, I know that this could be more controversial than a drug habit but I've faced bad press before. I can do it again."
"Well, I support you." Brian said as he glared at Kevin.
Brian knew that Kevin still had his reservations about Sully but he didn't think that this was the right time to air them. Kevin may feel protective of Alex but this was no time to be controlling.
The Nsync boys all nodded their agreement, they had talked it over before and knew that had it been any of them they would have asked for support from their rivals and so they would not speak out against Alex, nor would they against Nick now that they knew his secret too.
"I don't know if I can be so open as that." Sully said quietly.
Sully felt guilty that the rest of them were ready to support he and Alex in coming out and that he didn't want it but the fact that he loved Alex was nothing to do with anyone but them. He didn't feel ready to come out not only to his friends but to the world. Besides, what right did the world have to know anyway?
"Why not?" Lance asked openly, no accusation in his voice as he asked.
"I'm not as used to the press as you are and I've done things, things that I am not proud of that Lou could still use to hurt us. Even if we come out Lou Pearlman can still turn the press to his favour. He can tell them what I did..."
"He won't." Joey argued. "He'd come off as the bad guy."
"Not if he told them that he offered me that money as a test and that I accepted it." Sully replied.
"What money?" Lance asked and it was clear that they had not gotten the whole story. Sully wasn't sure if he was angry at Joey for making him explain or happy that the other man had not spilt his secret without asking him first.
"This isn't the first time that Lou has tried to blackmail us into submission." Alex said, thankfully explaining so that Sully didn't have to. "Five years ago, when Sully and I were together first time around, Lou offered Sully $10,000 to leave me for good. He also threatened that if he didn't leave then Lou would tell the world that he had seduced Nick, who was only seventeen at the time."
The confession made both Nick and Sully bow their heads. Ben reached for Nick, not caring who saw, and held him close. Alex took Sully's hand and gave it a squeeze, not letting go until his lover looked up at him and nodded for him to continue.
"It was that which drove Sully away last time. I think that Lou wants the same again. He hates to lose and I think that he sees Sully's return to my life and my bed as a defeat."
"So you took the money?"
"I had little choice." Sully said. "I didn't have any other way to get out of the state. Lou made me sign a contract that said I wasn't to return to Florida while the band were still together or have any association with them. It wasn't until I met Steve and then caught up with Nick that I realised that the contracts with Transcon had broken down and that the contract was no longer legally binding."
"And you think that Lou will publicise this if you come out."
Sully nodded.
"Okay." Lance said. "We'll just have to find another way out of this."
"How?" Sully asked.
There was a resounding silence in the room and no one was really sure how.
The meeting hit a wall at that point with no one really sure how they could get beyond this obstacle. Alex was beginning to wonder if he would ever catch a break or if he was destined to never have anything go in his favour and Sully too felt as if fate was dealing him a bad hand.
"So he can't sue you for breach of contract." Lance summed up. "He can't really even hold you to a contract like that because you didn't take legal advice before signing it. I don't know if there is a legal leg for him to stand on. It's only really the press that we have to worry about."
"We knew that Lansten." Joey replied.
There was a small silence again and then Justin spoke for the first time in the meeting.
"What if we had some leverage to keep this a secret?" Justin asked. "Would that help?"
"Justin, No." Josh said softly, placing a hand on Justin's shoulder.
Justin shrugged it off and looked directly at Alex.
"Would that help?" He asked firmly, ignoring Lance and Josh and seeking an answer straight from Alex himself.
"It would help us stop him from immediately going to the press." Alex said. "And would give us time to take him to court."
"Lou has certain...tastes...which if it got out to the press might damage his career. It would certainly put his current status in jeopardy."
"Justin..." Josh warned darkly. "This isn't your secret to tell."
"It's okay, Jayce." Justin said. "I already asked."
"Would someone like to let us know what you're talking about." A seriously pissed off Kevin asked, he was used to being in control and hated it when he was so clearly out of the loop.
"Lou likes girls. Young, pretty girls." Justin said. "It's stupid really because we always questioned why he had so many boybands around, thinking that he might be gay, but it turns out that he prefers the groupies that they bring."
There was a shocked silence as everyone took in that piece of information.
"It's not just groupies." Justin said softly. "When we were on our first tour Britney came to visit, she always looked so much older than she was..."
He trailed off but it was obvious where he was going with this. Lou Pearlman had made a pass at the princess of pop and that was definitely something that he would not want getting out. She would have been under 18 at that point, not legal and by her own admission a virgin. It was definitely not what he would want in the presses given that parents everywhere would suddenly worry about sending their young girls off to a concert where he might be.
"Lynn and my Mom have met a few more girls that have had similar experiences with him. A lot of them would be willing to testify if it came to it." Justin added. "Is that enough to use against him?"
"It's plenty." Lance said, feeling for his friend and suddenly re-evaluating how he saw Britney. He would never think of her as just a spoiled little princess again.
With that as ammunition Lance was sure that they would be able to get this off the ground and get Lou off of all of their backs once and for all.
"I think that we might just be able to do this." Joey said.
And for the first time in a long time the two rival bands found something that they could all agree on. Lou Pearlman was going down and this time there would be no recovery.
To Be Continued...Soon...
Note: Sorry about the delay (again) life is just pretty hectic. Do let me know if you're still reading this...or if there is anything that you would like to see.