The nursery was silent and dark—lit only by the gray light of night and then by the slowly growing yellow rectangle of hallway light—as Joey pushed the door open. He knew Brianna was awake, though, because he and Kelly had heard her whimpering and snuffling through the baby monitor by their bedside.

Joey shut the door behind him and walked over towards the crib. He could see the white moonlight reflecting off of the baby’s wide-open eyes. She almost smiled as he peered down at her.

"Come here," Joey said. He reached down with his large hands and picked the baby up. Her head fit perfectly against the curve of his shoulder and she cooed.

Joey walked around for a few moments, bouncing her against his chest, but then he sat down in the rocking chair that occupied a whole corner of the nursery. He rocked back and forth slowly and shifted Brianna so that she was lying across his lap, her head supported by his right arm. The wicker of the rocker creaked comfortingly with every movement.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

"I’m going to tell you a story," Joey said softly, using the quiet voice that lulled Brianna to sleep. "Is that okay? If I tell you a story?"

Brianna blinked at him. She watched his lips move.

"Okay," Joey said. He thought for a few moments, before speaking again. "Once upon a time," he started slowly, trying to come up with the right words. "Once upon a time there were five men—princes, actually. Now, none of these princes had very large kingdoms, but they were good people—kind to the people around them, you know?"

He looked down at the baby. She was lying nearly motionless, her eyes still wide.

"Well, one day, these five princes got together and decided to combine their five kingdoms into one big kingdom and rule over it together." Joey paused. "And the subjects—their people—were even happier, because now they were a part of something huge. And more people came to live in the kingdom and it prospered and became known throughout the world as one of the best places *ever.*"

Joey paused again and looked out the dark window. He could see black tree branches waving against the deep blue, star-studded sky.

Brianna cooed softly.

"All of the princes were good at different things, though," Joey said. "And so, as time went on, they split up the duties between them. One, Prince Lance, he was good with all the business stuff. He loved nothing more than sitting in the treasury and running the millions of gold pieces through his fingers." Joey smirked.

"And another one, Prince Chris, well, he’d risen out of the people to become prince of his kingdom, and he made the people laugh, so when the people needed to talk to one of the Princes, they’d talk to him. And another, Prince Joshua, he was the entertainer. Whenever visiting dignitaries came to visit, Prince JC would provide a stunning musical program."

Joey swallowed. "Then there was Prince Joey. He didn’t really have a public role, because he wasn’t so good at public speaking, or at dealing with business stuff, or. He was good at listening to the other Princes talk out their problems, though. And they said he was important, so most of the time, he felt he was."

"Then there was one more prince," Joey said. He realized he’d stopped rocking, so he started again. The wicker began its rhythmic creak all over again. "This Prince was named Justin. Prince Justin."

"Now, Prince Justin was a good guy. He was younger than all of the other Princes, but he was perhaps the best at leading people. When he said something, the people would follow. And because he was good at leading, and seemed to enjoy it, the other Princes were content to let him be the center of most of the spotlight. The people loved him. The dignitaries from other countries loved him." Joey swallowed again and his voice caught on the next sentence. "It could be said, perhaps, that Prince Justin was the star.

"One day, though," Joey rushed on. "One day Prince Justin got fed up with it all. He didn’t want to be the star, anymore. He’d been born into royalty and he’d never had the chance to be a kid like the other Princes had. So, in the middle of the night, Prince Justin climbed down the tower in the hour when he knew none of the guards would be watching. He hopped on a horse, with just a small bag of his favorite, non-royalty-related trinkets, and rode off into the countryside.

"The four other Princes were very distraught," Joey said. "Their wizard-advisor, Wizard Johnny, helped them figure out what to tell the public, and because it would have been disastrous to say that Prince Justin didn’t want to be Prince anymore, they said he went to go mingle with the common-folk."

"They figured that Prince Justin would be home really soon, because he was a Prince, after all, and most of the time he had seemed to really enjoy it."

"Prince Justin didn’t come back to the castle, though. He stayed away and sent messages by, um—" Joey looked at the border around Brianna’s room and saw the bird under the letter ‘B’ "—birds. The four princes couldn’t trace where these birds were from, so they just sent messages back to Justin using the same birds."

"They were still a kingdom, though, and someone had to take Prince Justin’s position. After much thought, and because the other three Princes already had their positions in running the kingdom, it was decided that Prince Joey would take over all of Prince Justin’s rolls."

"At first Prince Joey was scared, but then as time went on and he made more public appearances doing Prince Justin’s duties, he began to enjoy it more and more."

"All four remaining princes seemed to feel that they just weren’t a complete group without Justin, and so they sent him another message—by bird—saying that he had to be back by the time of the, um, Great Spring Feast, or they were going to hand their kingdom over to a group that could run it more efficiently."

"Prince Justin said he’d be back for the Great Spring Feast, but that night there was no sign of him among the party goers. Just as the clock struck midnight, a black bird flew in through one of the palace windows. It had a scroll clutched tightly in its claws and the scroll only had two words written on it: I’m sorry."

"The Princes didn’t know what to do." Joey shuddered and hugged Brianna closer to his chest. "But the next day a—" He looked back up at the alphabet border of the room again. "A, um, dolphin arrived in the mote, and said that it knew where Prince Justin was, and that he’d had to stay in the town where he was because of a jousting tournament."

"So the Princes talked and finally, after much deliberation, they went to the jousting tournament and saw Prince Justin win the match and become jousting champion of the whole world."

"The Princes were very proud of Justin and went up to congratulate him after the match. And Justin was happy to see them. Or so it seemed. And they all went back to the palace in the center of the kingdom and discussed whether they all really wanted to be Princes any more. They decided they did—Prince Justin just said that he’d needed a break from all the royalty stuff, but now he had his knight, Sir Stuart, and his Princess, Lady Margaret, so it was all okay."

"Without any questions raised at all, Prince Justin stepped back into the spotlight again and the people rejoiced. And, without any protest from anyone, Prince Joey stepped out of the spotlight and went back to his role of group confident."

Joey looked down at his now sleeping daughter. He kept rocking slowly, back and forth, back and forth.

"All five princes wanted to say that it was happily ever after, after that, but it wasn’t." Joey sighed. "A lot of trust between the five Princes had been broken when Prince Justin left, and it affected the group of them still, a year after Prince Justin returned. Both Prince Chris and Prince JC were worried that Prince Justin would leave again, and, even a year later, hovered over his shoulder. Prince Lance and Prince JC had fought a lot while Prince Justin was gone, and their friendship was still strained. And Prince Joey, once content to sit in the background, wasn’t so sure he was anymore."

"He could understand that everyone wanted Prince Justin immediately after he got back, because everyone had missed him. But Joey had done a good job while Justin was gone and I, um, *he* thought that he’d get more public appearances, but he didn’t, because that was Prince Justin’s job and no one saw why it should be any other way."

"Even though the Princes weren’t entirely happy anymore, they still kept going on with their daily lives, ruling the kingdom of ‘N SYNC together."

Joey looked down at his daughter. He jumped when he heard a voice at the doorway.

"So what happens then?" Kelly asked. "Is there a happily ever after to this story?"

Joey shrugged as he stood up. "I don’t know."

"But will there be, do you think?" Kelly walked over to where Joey was laying Brianna down in the crib. She pulled the blanket up over their daughter.

Again Joey shrugged.

Kelly wrapped her arms around Joey’s waist. "I hope you get your happily ever after," she said. She gave Joey a squeeze and then let go.

"Me, too," Joey said. 1