Considering how clumsy JC can be, it is somewhat of a surprise that he isn’t in the Emergency Room more often.  I guess he usually just trips over his seemingly overgrown feet instead of actually drawing blood like he did tonight.  Oh don’t worry, it wasn’t a bad cut, he didn’t damage his pretty face, but it bled a lot because it was a head wound.  Of course, he tried to brush it off, hoping to avoid having to get stitches.  It’s well documented that he has a serious fear of needles, so I’m sure the fact that he was playing Mr. Tough Guy and declining treatment comes as no shock to you. 

Somehow I was elected to be the member of the management team to go with JC to the hospital.  One minute, I’m curled up reading a good book, next minute I’m running around getting dressed and retrieving JC’s medical files.  Normally this kind of thing doesn’t get passed to me, since I am but one of the underlings and JC is, after all, one of the VIPs.  However, since it was late and I was known to be a night owl, I was volun-told. 

If you thought my job touring across the country with *NSYNC was all glitz and glam, you’d be completely wrong and tonight would be the night to prove it. 

When I met JC and Lonnie in front of the elevator, JC was still denying that he needed medical treatment.  This was despite the fact that he was holding a wet towel to his forehead because his gash was still oozing blood.  Lonnie gave him two options—get into the elevator under his own power, or don’t.  I guess JC knew that Lonnie meant business, so he scowled at him and grumped his way to the back of the car.  He stood stoically while Lonnie and I boarded and I pushed the button for the lobby. 

Thankfully for once the lobby was clear and we could walk out to the car with out any fuss.  I think JC was hoping for some fuss so that he could put off going to the hospital just that much longer.  He didn’t realize that the sight of JC Chasez with blood dripping from his hairline was not something that a lot of his fans would like to see.  I was glad because I really didn’t want to deal with any fainting or screaming.  Taking one spoiled child to the hospital tonight was more than I needed or wanted to deal with.

Yes, I called him spoiled.  What else do you call a man who needs things ‘just so’, anal-retentive, maybe?  How many times had I been sent out to buy something he required only to be told I’d gotten the wrong one?  Seriously, who can taste the difference between 1% and 0.5% fat in the milk in their coffee?  You want to know who?  JC.  That’s right.  He’s a little diva.  And who do you think has to buy those boxer shorts he famously tosses?  Yup.  I’m the one who dresses his ass--literally.  Now I wouldn’t want you to think that I didn’t regularly get my revenge, because I totally did. And that’s the reason why I could see pink and purple boxers peeking out of the top of his jeans tonight.  With polka dots, I might add.  Which sadly don’t seem to bother him.  Clearly, I was going to have to find even crazier looking boxers on my next shopping trip.

JC slumped in the front seat, muttering under his breath about how much he didn’t want to be going to the hospital.  I shook my head, rolled my eyes to heaven and slid into the backseat.  Lonnie met my gaze in the rear view mirror and winked.  At the rate JC was going, one of the two of us was bound to strip him down to said pink and purple polka-dotted underwear and toss him to the teeny fans. 

Lonnie kicked JC out of the car and told him to get in the backseat so that I could hold a towel to his cut in the hopes of staunching the blood.  How lucky could one girl get?  I got to sit with JC’s head in my lap while applying pressure to his wound.  I may or may not have added extra pressure whenever he muttered something about not wanting to go to the hospital.

When we pulled up to the Emergency Room, I went in first to speak with security and let them know that they were about to be graced with the presence of a celebrity.  It didn’t matter what I said, because these people never take me seriously, dang it!  I bet if I was a guy, they would totally believe me.  Or maybe if I was just taller.  I stretched to my fullest height and I was getting ready to use my “big” voice when I saw the security guard focus on something behind me.  I didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Lonnie approaching with JC slung over his shoulder.  Oh no, I didn’t have to turn around because the damn fool was yelling his head off.  I think if Lonnie hadn’t been so intimidating, JC might have been thrown out of the hospital for having a temper tantrum.  Diva-like behaviour, anyone?

People saw Lonnie, and suddenly things were happening.  The three of us were rushed off to a private room in a matter of minutes.  Lonnie decided to wait outside the door, just in case.  That left me to stay with the diva.  Oh joy.  I shall try to contain my excitement.

I swear, if he didn’t stop pacing the room and muttering under his breath, I was going to jump out of my chair and throttle him.  Seriously, why couldn’t it have been Joey or Chris that had been hurt?  Not that I wanted either of them to be hurt, but at least with one of those two, I’d be having a conversation of sorts.  Joey would talk about how much he missed his family, and I’d listen and laugh at the stories he told.  And Chris?  Well, Chris would be putting bedpans on his head and playing with tongue depressors, but at least he wouldn’t ignore me.  Oh no, Chris would have had me wrapped up in gauze bandages or something.  As far as JC was concerned, I was just another annoying thing to do with his trip to the hospital, so I was to be avoided at all costs. 

I was holding on to the sides of my seat to keep from launching myself across the room at JC when a nurse finally came in.  She ignored me and the medical charts I offered her and pointed me out of the room.  I was glad to go.

Lonnie was leaning up against the wall outside of JC’s room.  He gave me a smile.  “How is his divaness doing in there?”

“He’s working my last nerve,” I replied.  “I’m going to get something to drink.  Do you want a coffee or something?”

Lonnie dug into his pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill, “Sure, if you can find a soda machine, why don’t you get us all one?”

“Keep your money, Lonnie, I’ve got it.”  I turned to walk away.

Lonnie put his hand on my shoulder, so I looked back at him.  He put the bill in my hand.  “Hey, Sunshine, this isn’t my money.  It’s JC’s and it’s the least he owes us tonight,” he said with a laugh. 

“Well, in that case,” I smiled as I pocketed the money, “do you want anything else?”

Lonnie just smiled and shook his head. 

I won’t lie; I took my time getting back.  I stopped in the bathroom first and splashed cold water in my face.  Babysitting celebrities wasn’t what I signed up for, I thought as I looked at myself in the mirror.  I had an education, for pity’s sake.  I was supposed to be doing something with my life.  Instead, I was here in a hospital bathroom staring at the bags under my eyes which were horrendous and certainly not helped at all by the pea green colour of the bathroom.  I sighed at my reflection.  Only a few more weeks of touring, I told myself, then I can go home to my tiny little apartment.  Somehow the thought didn’t cheer me up very much.

When I got back, Lonnie was laughing.  “What’s up?” I asked.

“After you left, the nurse left the room muttering about what a baby he was being over having his vitals taken.  He tried to run when she brought the thermometer out-he thought it was a needle!” 

I didn’t try to hide my smirk.  “I’m sure that went over well.”

“She threatened to restrain him,” Lonnie chuckled. 

“Oh dear, I guess I’d better go check on him,” I replied. 

I gave a light tap on the door before opening it.  “Hey, you decent?”

“Yeah, come on in,” JC said.

He was perched on the bed, swinging his legs.  I handed him his soda and sat across from him.  “Wanna talk about it?”

“Aw, man!  He told you?”  JC blushed.

“What’s the big deal?  You have a phobia.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Really?  Having an irrational fear is something to be proud of then, I suppose?” he countered snarkily.

“You know what, JC?  I am trying to cut you some slack because you’re not well and I know how much you hate hospitals, but you’re really starting to piss me off. “   I got up and left the room again.  I couldn’t be near him much longer without causing him more bodily harm and I didn’t really feel like explaining it to my bosses.  Besides, that would definitely incur paperwork which was something I loathed. 

The doctor came by about five minutes later.  He popped his head out in the hallway and asked me for JC’s medical records.  He took them in with him and came out shortly thereafter.

He shook his head while reading JC’s records, then looked over the binder at me.  “Really?  He’s this bad with needles?”

Lonnie and I both nodded.  “’fraid so.”

“I’ll order something to calm him, and you’re going to have to be in the room when I stich him up.” 

I had assumed he meant Lonnie, because out of the two of us, Lonnie was much better equipped to hold JC still, then I noticed he was looking at me.  “You’re going to need to distract him.  We’ll keep everything out of his line of sight, but you’ll do the rest.”

Look at that, I was getting volun-told again.  Seriously, what is with these people?  All I wanted was my flannel pjs and my bed!

The nurse came down the hallway with a medicine cup in her hand and a no-nonsense look in her eye.  JC was going to take the medication whether he wanted to or not.  She came out of his room a few minutes later and told us the doctor would be back soon.  She warned us that she had put the rails up on JC’s bed because she’d given him a sedative and didn’t want him falling out of bed.

She went in and out a couple more times checking on JC and getting the room set up for the doctor.  When he finally came back, I was ushered back into the room.  JC looked somewhat smaller now, lying in the bed.  He was definitely pale and I felt a little bad for him.

“Hey,” he whispered as I stepped closer to the bed. 

I nodded, “Hey.  How are you feeling?”

“Loopy,” he said as his eyes fluttered closed. 

I reached over and held his hand, noticing how long his eyelashes were as they lay against his cheek.  The doctor and nurse were set up behind a curtain.  The doctor peered around it and motioned for me to step away from the bed.  

“The sedative we gave him should have knocked him out, but he seems to have a tolerance for it.  We’re going to have to put in an IV so we can monitor the medication levels a bit better, and that way we only need to put one needle in.”

“He’s not going to go for that,” I replied.  “It’s having the needle in his skin he doesn’t like.”

“Won’t matter,” the doctor replied.  “This will knock him out and then we’ll stitch him up.   I’ll give him his tetanus booster as well.  The important thing is that he stays still.”

I nodded and went back to my post at JC’s bedside.  He opened his eyes, and I could see how frightened he was.  “Cicely,” that was all he said.

I was surprised that he actually knew my name; I don’t think he’d actually used it before.  “I’m here, JC.  I’ll be with you the whole time, OK?”

He nodded, but when he felt the nurse take his hand on the other side of the curtain to prep it for the IV, he got that panicked look in his eyes. 

“No worries, JC.” I put the side rail down and perched on the side of his bed, trying to keep his focus on me, on this side of the curtain.   I leaned over him and stroked his forehead.  I got my face right in his so that he had to look at me.  Poor guy, I thought, stuck looking at my ugly mug.

JC reached up and brushed my hair back from my face.  “There, now I can see your pretty eyes,” he smiled.  Oh boy.  He really was drugged up.  And he didn’t move his hand.  I gave him an indulgent, isn’t-he-such-a-cute-delusional-boy smile, and tried not to roll my eyes. 

He flinched when the nurse squeezed his hand, looking for a vein.  I’m pretty sure he whimpered then too.  But that might have been from the kiss.  What kiss? Well how else was I supposed to distract him?  He was terrified and even if he annoyed the snot out of me, no one deserved to be that frightened.  Besides, he said my eyes were pretty, didn’t he? 

Once he got over his initial shock, JC kissed me back.  I don’t know why I was surprised by how well he kissed.  With lips like those, it was only to be expected.  His lips were softer than I expected, and I liked the slight whisker burn I was getting.  It was a nice kiss-not sloppy, that’s for sure.  I had dated a guy in high school who practically drooled on me when he kissed me—and I was thinking about this why??  I really needed to focus on the moment.  I was kissing JC and he was kissing me back!  He certainly didn’t seem disgusted by me either.  He moved his hand from my cheek into my hair, trying to bring me even closer to him if that was possible.  I pulled slowly away and watched a dreamy smile flash across his face before his eyes closed completely and his features went slack.

Yeah, sure, he kissed me all right.  While he was in a drug-induced state.  Yep.  Story of my life.  Kissing me made JC Chasez fall asleep.  What kind of claim to fame was that?  I shook my head, waiting for this night to be over so that I could go to sleep and never wake up.

It was a few hours later when Lonnie and I dragged JC along the hallway to his room.  I don’t know how useful I was because I was shorter than JC, so his arm around my shoulders didn’t help him much.  In fact, he slumped his head over on to me while we got him to his room.  Once Lonnie got his door open, I left them there.

I opened my room and barely noticed that my sweet roommate had packed the remainder of my stuff for me.  My bus had already left, so I’d be travelling on “the boys’” bus in a couple hours.  I fell face-first on my bed.  There was no point in getting changed now. 

I must have slept through a lot because when I woke up, I was tucked up in a bed on the bus which I discovered when I sat up in bed and smacked my head against the upper bunk.  I heard a laugh just outside of the curtain. 

“Be careful, Cicely, you don’t want to have to go back to the hospital, do you?”

“Hey, Chris,” I called sweetly as I opened the curtain.

“Yeah?” he smiled.

I didn’t respond with words, but Chris certainly understood the gesture I made.  “Cicely!  I’m shocked!”

“Sure you are,” I laughed as I crawled out of bed.  “What time is it and where are we?”

Chris looked at his watch.  “Umm, it’s about 11 and I have no idea where we are.”

I nodded as I stretched a bit.  “Anything else I should know?”

He pretended to think about it.  “Let’s see…JC’s still out cold, Lonnie said you should check on him and give him his meds later, Joey’s beating Lance on the PlayStation and Justin is talking to some girl on the phone.  We’re probably stopping in a few minutes for lunch and you’ve got a wicked case of bed head.”

“Thanks, Chris.  You are such a pal.”

“Yeah, well I try,” he smiled as he headed back to the front of the bus to bug Justin.

It took me a couple more minutes to get my bearing; I made a quick trip to the bathroom and tried to tame my hair without much luck.  I’d borrow a hat from one of the freaks later.  When I got back to the bunks, I had to stand on the lower bunk to peek into JC’s bed.  He was still breathing, so I took that as a good sign.  I couldn’t see his stitches from where I was, so I climbed up into the bunk beside him.  My plan was to…I don’t know what my plan was.  I thought it would be easy, get in the bunk, check his wound, and get out of the bunk.  No such luck.  As I leaned over JC, his arm came around me and pulled me down on top of him.  I was stuck.  I had time to notice that he’d changed his shirt and was glad because I didn’t really want to be laying on a bloody day old tee.  The next thing I knew, he was stroking my hair, smoothing it down under his palm in a relaxing manner. 

I tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn’t let me up.  Instead, he held me tighter. 

“Mmmm, go back to sleep, baby,” he murmured.

“JC!  JC!  I’m not your girlfriend,” I tried to shake him a bit.  “Let me take a look at your cut and I’ll get out of your way.”

“Huh?  What?”

“JC, just let me look at your head, will you?”

He sighed loudly, “Fine, but after you’re done, can we go back to sleep?”

“Yes, you can go back to sleep when I’m done.”

“Fine,” he turned his head toward me. 

“I have to turn on the light for a minute, OK?”  I didn’t give him a chance to answer.  I took a look at his cut, touched gently around it to make sure there was no infection, and then turned out the light.  “We’ll worry about the medication later, OK?”  I patted his shoulder and started to slide out of the bunk.

“Where are you going, Angel?”  I was startled by the question, but even more so by JC tightening his arms around me.  Then I looked up and his blue eyed gaze threw me off even more.  “You said we could go back to sleep.”

“Perhaps you’re not fully awake, JC, but I’m Cicely, remember?”

He smirked, “I know who you are, Ciss, I wasn’t hit on the head that hard.”

“Then what’s the deal?  In case you have forgotten, you have a girlfriend and you don’t really like me that much.”

“No I don’t and yes, I do!”

I was about to ask him what the hell he meant when I was yanked out of the bunk and thrown over a shoulder.  I heard maniacal laughing, but couldn’t figure out which of the clowns had grabbed me until he started talking.

“Girl, you can’t go leavin’ your ass hangin’ off the side of the bed on a bus full of guys and not expect to drive us crazy!”

“Joey, you never mind my ass, thankyouverymuch and put me down!” I hollered.

“I don’t know,” he laughed, “I think you’ve got a great ass.   Justin, what do you think?”

“Mmm, girl, the way you fill out a pair of jeans….” Justin giggled as Joey righted me and put me on the couch.

“Seriously, what have you all been smoking today?  First JC tries to snuggle with me, and now you two are pretending to hit on me.  What is going on here?”

“JC tried to snuggle with you?”  Justin and Joey fell over each other laughing.

I shook my head.  There was no way I was going to get a serious answer out of either of them at this point.

Chris tossed a baseball cap at me.  “Here, Ciss, you might want to wear this to cover up that bird’s nest you’re rocking!”  He smirked as he said it, knowing he was headed for trouble.

“Thanks, Chris, but if I wear this, what are you going to wear for your teeny bopper repellent?” I asked sweetly.  He never saw the noogie coming.  What can I say?  An unofficial part of my job is keeping Chris in line.  By the time we finished our impromptu wrestling match, Lance, Joey and Justin were gone.  I peeked in on JC, saw that he was sleeping and decided I’d bring him back some lunch rather than wake him.

Chris and I walked toward the restaurant together, each of us giving the other a shove when we could sneak one in.  There was no room at the main table, so the two of us sat in a booth off to the side “So, what’s this I hear about JC snuggling with you?”

He had to ask me just as I started to drink, didn’t he?  So it’s his own fault that I spit my drink across the table.  “What?”

Chris shrugged, “Nothing, it’s just about damn time he did something about it instead of mooning over you all the time.”

Seriously?  What are these guys on today?  “What??”

“Oh, come on, like you don’t see JC looking at you every chance he gets.”

“Actually, no, I don’t.”  I said a little huffily.  “In case you haven’t noticed, JC hates me.  Today he’s just too looped up on pain killers to remember that.”

Chris shook his head.  “Oh, I notice, all right.  He’s into you.”

I rolled my eyes at him.  “Whatever, Chris.  You can drop the joke now.  JC does not like me.  He’s got a girlfriend, and I really don’t feel like talking about this.”

“Fine,” said Chris, “But no, he doesn’t.”

Oh brother.  Why do these boys insist on not making any sense today?

I took my lunch and JC’s and went back to the bus.  I was still tired and cranky and these boys were really starting to get to me.  I needed to be alone before I put my job in jeopardy by starting a food fight or smacking Chris. 

I didn’t even make it all the way out to the bus before Lance stopped me.  “Hey, Cutie!  How are you doing today?”

“Look, Lance, I’m really not in a good mood right now.  Don’t take it personally, but I really need to be alone.”

I was afraid I had hurt his feelings, but I should have known that out of all of them, Lance was the one guy who would understand.

“Sure, Hun, I can give you some space.  I know all your stuff went on your bus, do you need anything?” 

I smiled, even though I didn’t want to.  “How about a clean T shirt and some Tylenol?” I asked. 

“That I can do,” he smiled and held the bus door open for me.  “Chris give you a headache?”

I laughed.  “No, as much as I’d like to blame him, I had it before.”

Lance shook his head with a smile, “Too bad, it would have been fun to get him in trouble for that.” Lance nodded toward the couch.  “You sit down.   I’ll be right back.”

I sank into the couch, and leaned my head forward to the table.  The knots in my neck were really bothering me, so I tried to rub them out.  I heard Lance talking, so I assumed JC was awake.  I figured I would take him his breakfast after Lance got me something for this headache. 

I sat up as I heard Lance coming back.  Instead of Lance, it was JC who brought me a shirt.  He put it on the table, then got a bottle of water out of the fridge for me.  He twisted off the top, then handed me the bottle while he shook two of the extra strength Tylenol into his hand.  He took my hand and held it while he gently dumped the pills into it.  There was something so nice about being taken care of, something that I hadn’t felt for a long time, but it was weird coming from JC, the guy who up until now I thought didn’t like me at all.

I took the pills and had a long drink of water.  JC sat down beside me and brushed my bangs away from my eyes.  “Headache?” 

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“Can I get you anything?”

I shook my head.  “No thank you.  Besides I’m supposed to be taking care of you!  Did you get your pain killers yet?  Oh, and I brought you breakfast.  I didn’t know what you’d feel like eating, so I got you a bagel and a coffee and if you want anything---“

I stopped talking only when JC put his finger to my mouth.  He laughed.  “Honey, slow down!  A bagel and a coffee sounds great,” he added as he opened the bag and got out his food.  “Thanks so much for bringing it back for me.  And I was just getting up to get my pain killers.”

“Good,” I nodded.  I picked up the t-shirt that Lance had sent up with JC.  I debated for about half a second about getting up to get changed, but it seemed like too much effort to put forth.  Instead, I did the old gym class trick of putting one t-shirt on while taking the other off.  JC sat and looked at me.

“How the heck did you do that?” Clearly I had puzzled him.

“Magic,” I smiled.  “Is your coffee OK?”

He had a long drink.  “It’s perfect.  Look, about my coffee, there’s something you should know.”  He paused as the other guys got on the bus and each checked in to see how JC was doing. 

When they had all gone to the back of the bus, JC reached out and took my hand.  He slowly dragged his thumb over the back of my fingers.  “So, about my coffee preferences, I have a confession to make.  I only gave you a hard time when Sophia was around.  It sounds silly to say it now, but she was really threatened by you.  I thought that if I acted as if I didn’t like you, it would deter her from bothering you or trying to make trouble for you.  I guess I thought you’d see that I was protecting you because I was only that way when she was around.”

I pulled my hand back from him.  “So, you thought by treating me like shit you were protecting me from your girlfriend?  Thanks, JC, thanks a lot.  I’m sorry that your girl is insecure, but that’s no reason to take it out on me and you know, if you’re going to date someone who is afraid of your co-workers, how on earth is she going to deal with your fans? And I’m sorry, but if you have to treat other people badly to make your girlfriend happy, there’s something wrong there. “

“You’re right, Cicely, I was stupid and I’m sorry.  I don’t know if I can ever make it up to you but I’d like to try.  And as for Sophia dealing with my life, well, she isn’t.  I broke up with her.  She wasn’t the girl I thought she was.”

“Well, JC, what do you want, a cookie?  I’m glad you broke up with her if only because she was not good for you.  I barely had any contact with her, but I could see she was treating you badly.”  I moved to get up.

“Where are you going?” he took my hand in his again.

“To lie down,” I nodded toward the bunks.  “I’ve still got this killer headache.”

“Let me try something to help you first.” 

Really?  How hard was it to get rid of this guy?  I sat down and he stood behind me.  He put his hands on my shoulders and gently started to rub the knots out.  If I could have purred like a cat, I would have.  His hands were warm and soft and what surprised me more, gentle. 

“I didn’t get the chance to thank you for being there for me last night.  I was really glad they sent you with me.”

“Even after I yelled at you?” I laughed.

“Yep, even then and especially when you kissed me.”

Oh crap.  He remembered that?  I looked quickly over my shoulder.  JC winked at me and slid into the seat next to me again, one arm around me.  “I was drugged up, Ciss, but kissing you was like a completely different type of trip.  One I’d like to take every day.”

I swallowed hard.  I’m sure my shock was apparent.

“What do you say, Cicely?” he whispered in my ear.  I shivered at the warmth of his breath on my skin.  Was it possible that I was now the one who was drugged?

I slowly turned to meet his gaze and I nearly drowned in his eyes.  I couldn’t form a coherent sentence right now if my life depended on it.

“How about you be my drug, and I’ll be yours,” his lips were now just millimetres from mine. 

I gave a slight nod as I closed my eyes and kissed JC for the first time with neither of us being under the influence of prescribed narcotics.  If it was possible, this kiss was even better from the first.  And they kept getting better—until Chris called out, “I told you he was into you!” and we turned to see all four of the guys standing in the doorway laughing at us. 

JC leaned his forehead into mine.  “I sure am in to you!” he laughed.  He waved the guys away and kissed me again.  And that was how a found out that JC didn't hate me after all.