"Carrie! Is that really you?" AJ howled as she walked through the door.

"I dunno, let me check the passport," she said, pulling it out of her pocket. That was as far as she got because the next thing she knew she was being smothered in a hug.

"Call him off, someone!" she pleaded as he squeezed her tightly.

"I'm sorry, but you completely disappeared forever. Ever since that day in England, we haven't even heard anything from you, except for that book that just got published. It was the only thing we had to tell us that you were still alive. It's been, what, eight months since we've seen you?" he excused himself.

"We've missed you, Carrie. You began family, and then you just decided to leave. Just because one of us is a complete knob doesn't mean that we all are," Howie said, taking his turn to hug Cairo.

"Well, I'm just here because I left some stuff at Brickwood that I need to pick up."

"What happened with that house, anyway? Did you find some sucker to buy like you kept trying to do?" Kevin asked, as he greeted Cairo in typical Backstreet fashion; with a hug.

"Actually, the sucker found me. He contacted my lawyer, of all people. I decided not to sell it, but the person was so desperate to buy it, that they agreed to lease it. I even got to include a whole bunch of clauses in the lease, so they were really keen on the property. Watch there's, like, the world's largest gold deposit on it. That would explain so much," she laughed.

"Have you heard from our silent member at all?" AJ asked quietly.

"No, I haven't. I'm kind of glad that I haven't, because I'm still very upset with him. I would probably end up committing murder if I were to see him, which is why I plan on avoiding your meeting at all costs tomorrow, Boys," she explained. They all nodded, understanding. They weren't so keen on seeing him either. They were more than a little upset about his sudden decision to leave the band without any explanation.

"Brian, when's Lacey getting in again?" Cairo asked, suddenly remembering her long lost best friend was on her way.

"She should be here within the hour. If not sooner," Brian informed. Surprised, the other Boys all shot each other looks.

"In recent weeks, Brian has become my bitch. It's quite handy," Cairo said with a dead straight face that they couldn't help laughing at. Brian attempted to protest, but it didn't work. Especially when Cairo dropped her keys purposely, and didn't pick them up. After a few seconds, Brian stooped down and scooped them up for her. They were all in hysterics by this point, and when Brian's face revealed what had just happened, they went beyond the brink.

"What, is the outfit that bad?" Lacey asked, coming upon the laughing group, in the middle of the joke.

"Lacey! You're here! Wow!" Cairo said, greeting her friend with enthusiasm. She was determined to make for the lost time when she hadn't been in contact with her friend. In the past ten months, she really had been on a planet of her own, and the fact that she didn't even know about Lacey's annulment was a blinding flash of the obvious.

"Down, girl. Okay, we need to talk right away about some of this stuff that I found. In private," she said, eyeing the others that they leaned in to listen.

"Look, they should all know. They are the ones that hired her, so they should be informed of how well they judge human character," Cairo said.

"Really, I think that you should be the first to hear this. It's…well, knowing you, an innocent may suffer," Lacey said, the look in her eye showing genuine concern.

"No. I'm stubborn. Spill it."

"Okay. Well, Meagan, your tour-director, is a big fat fraud. I have no idea how she passed off knowing what she's doing for so long, because she had absolutely no experience. But let's start at the very beginning," she said, sitting down at the table in the restaurant that they had met the Boys in.

"What exactly is going on here, Carrie?" AJ asked.

"Didn't Brian fill you in?" They all shook their heads.v

"Meagan, I have decided, is the devil. Everything seems to come back to her, so I decided that we needed to do some investigating. My oldest, dearest friend here, just happens to be a private investigator, so I got her to do some digging around for me. Are you guys prepared to find out what you hired?" she asked.

"You found stuff?" Kevin asked.

"Give the man the Nobel Prize! Why else do you think that I'm here?" Cairo asked.

"Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Meagan is twenty-six, graduated from high school in '92. She had a scholarship to the University of Maine, but she lost it when she got herself into a little bit of trouble. This is where you two come in, Kay and Brian. Listen carefully. Seems our girl got caught selling liquid E at a frosh party. They did some more checking, and it seems that she was also manufacturing it. She was sentenced to two years in prison because of it."

"Liquid E?" Cairo asked, not seeing the significance.

"Liquid Ecstasy, Cairo. Now, we know it as a date-rape drug. It's put into people's drinks, and it makes them act in ways they normally wouldn't, and the next day, they don't remember anything. Think about it. How much did you have to drink that night?"

"Only a few shots."

"Exactly. Now, I've trained you better than that, you should be able to hold that, with only slight a buzz. But it knocked you, the both of you, completely out. The reason this shit is so damn popular is because it is so hard to detect after a day or so, so the culprit gets away, normally free as a bird. I'm not saying that this is what happened, but it makes the most sense," Lacey finished. Shocked, Cairo looked over at Brian.

"I don't remember much after we got back from the bar. Until that one last drink we had in the lobby before we went to the hotel room. After that, it's all just a blank. I know what didn't happen, but I have never blanked out before. Never," Cairo said. Brian nodded.

"It could also explain why she knew where we were, and what to show Nick," Brian said.

"Oh my god. Meagan?" Kevin asked, clearly shocked.

"After she was paroled, she was hired by an anonymous person, and then she got her job with you Boys," Lacey said.

"Do you think that she's still working for this other person? That maybe she is doing this for someone else?" Cairo asked.

"You and suspicious writer's mind. I do think that. It would only make sense, and if not, why is she doing this?" Lacey asked.

"Whoa. And to think that Nick is with her right now…" Howie trailed off.

"She never worked for all those places on her resume. Cairo and I checked. Hard to believe, I know. She was so good at her job," Brian said.

"So, what happens now?"

"Well, you guys go to your meeting tomorrow, and pretend like everything is normal. And from there, we improvise," Cairo said.