ActionScript 3.0 :: Adding Time Delay Without Timers?

I've been having some trouble with this line of code. This is being used in an .as class file for my Ball class. I can get it to move within the main .fla by using a timers but if possible I would rather avoid the timer. I'm trying to develop a system for my FLA like this:

Ball starts at x,y
Ball moves to waypoint x,y
Ball leaves stationary copies of itself along the way forming a line as it goes.

The file will do this several times so I am trying to base this on if/else rules rather than animate it out. I feel like I should contain all movement activity within the class file and leave the waypoint rules for the main .fla. My current issue is that the code below (without the hittest) works if the FLA has a timer triggering the moveTowards function. Without the timer in the fla, it still works but the ball just warps to the destination.So I have two questions:

Is there a way to control the while loop so that it pauses at the end of each loop enough to look like the ball is moving incrementally?Is there a way for me to have a drawball function within the ball class itself or should I make a new package/class within the class file? Ideally I would have the new ball creation be relative to the "step" variable.

Code:
public function moveTowards(pX:Number, pY:Number, step:Number)
{
var dir:Number = Math.atan2(pY - y,pX - x); //find angle direction[code]...........