It was an ordinary morning, or as ordinary as possible with five young men who practically lived in each other’s pockets. Chris and Justin were sitting on the floor playing video games and didn’t dare let their eyes stray from the TV in fear that their opponent would win. Lance sat on one end of the couch typing away on his laptop, while JC sat on the opposite end writing in his notebook.

 

Just then Joey stumbled into the room looking disheveled and exhausted. Lance was the only one who looked up from his work. The other three were too engrossed in what they were doing.

 

“Good morning, Joe,” Lance said.

 

Joey grunted as he sunk into the chair next to the couch. He closed his eyes. He hadn’t gotten that much sleep, so he wanted to try to catch a few more minutes. This proved difficult when Justin and Chris started shouting at the TV.

 

“I’m going to win! Just a little more…”

 

“C’mon, move faster you piece of crap!” Chris shouted at his player.

 

“Guys, can you keep it down please?” Joey asked while leaning his head back and rubbing his temples in an attempt to ease the pain. However, his request was ignored. Justin and Chris were way too involved in the game to hear Joey and continued to shout encouragement and obscenities to their player. Finally Joey couldn’t take their screaming anymore, so he walked over to the TV and pulled the plug.

 

Justin and Chris looked at the blank screen, each other, and the black screen again before they shouted ‘no’ simultaneously.

 

Chris turned his eyes onto Joey. “What did you do that for, man?”

 

“Yeah I was just about to win,” Justin piped in from his spot on the floor. Joey looked at him and Chris.

 

“I asked you guys to turn it down,” Joey said annoyed that they were giving him a hard time over nothing.

 

“Oh look who it is! It’s Mr. Crankypants,” Chris replied.

 

“Oh come off it, Chris. You’re only upset because you know I was going to beat you,” Justin told him with a smug expression on his face.

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

“Yeah.” Chris pounced on Justin and they began to wrestle with each other. Joey just rolled his eyes and went back over to his chair. They were being a little quieter, which could give him the peace he needed to catch a few Z’s.

 

Lance watched Joey as he folded himself into the chair while closing his eyes and clutching his throbbing head. Lance turned his attention away from Joey for a minute and saw that JC had been watching him too. Lance raised his eyebrow in silent question; he knew they needed to talk about Joey. JC nodded in response.

 

However, before they could get the conversation started a knock at the door startled them. They looked at each other and sighed. It would have to wait.

 

JC got up and answered the door. It was the room service they ordered for breakfast. There was a wide spread of food, so the guys helped themselves. Chris and Justin had stopped wrestling and were attacking the food instead.

 

Lance plugged the TV back in and the five of them sat quietly as they ate their breakfast while watching a Happy Days rerun. Once they finished eating they stacked their plates on the room service cart and got ready to begin another day.

 

“Yo, Lance! What’s the plan for today? Justin asked.

 

Lance checked his watch. “We have a radio interview in 15 minutes. Then we have to meet with Wade because he wants to make sure we have the two-step part down pat.”

 

Chris groaned. “No, not the slave driver. We’ll be there all day.”

 

“Well you know if you didn’t screw around as much, he wouldn’t have to get on your case,” Lance replied.

 

Chris mumbled something that sounded a lot like “suck up” before he walked out the door with the other four following behind.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

“Step 1, 2, 3, hop, hop, jump, kick, turn, and…done.”

 

Wade watched the five of them look at each other and smile. They knew they had gotten it perfect that time. Everyone was in their correct position and nobody got stepped on.

 

“Okay guys, I think we’re done for today. Whatever our problem from yesterday was seems to be fixed. Go home and get some sleep. You’ll need it,” Wade said and waved his hand, dismissing them.

 

They all grabbed their towels and guzzled water as they began to leave the dance studio.

 

“Hey, what’s the deal for dinner?” Joey asked.

 

“Ah, good ole Joey, always wanting to know about food,” Justin said and laughed as they went up in the elevator. They were fortunate enough to have a dance studio in the hotel, so they wouldn’t be mobbed by fans outside.

 

“We’re going to order pizza in Lance’s room and just hang out being it’s our last night off before the tour starts again,” JC answered as they got off on the fourteenth floor.

 

“That’s cool. I’m just going to get changed and I’ll be over,” Joey said and the others agreed. The five of them went into their separate rooms to get changed. Before Joey could reach his room he was pulled back by Lance.

 

“Yeah, Lance?”

 

“Are you OK?”

 

Joey looked at Lance for a minute and blinked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

Lance was going to argue, but knew that it wouldn’t get him anywhere. Instead he let Joey go into his room.

 

“I guess I’ll see you in a few minutes then,” Lance said as he headed for his room. When the five of them met in Lance’s room ten minutes later, the pizza was ordered and on its way.

 

All of them were sprawled out in various spots in the room just lounging. While they waited for the pizza to show up they talked about the radio interview they did that day.

 

“Could you believe some of the questions they asked? ‘What color crayon would you be and why?’” Justin asked.

 

“Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad,” Lance defended.

 

“You’re just saying that because you enjoyed answering the question, dork,” Chris replied.

 

“I am not! It was a nice change from answering the same questions over and over again.”

 

“Yeah it was different. Instead of asking us which animal we’d be, they asked which crayon,” Justin said.

 

The others were saved from a verbal argument that they knew was coming when there was a knock on the door.

 

“Food’s here!” Joey exclaimed as he jumped up to answer the door all the while pulling a fifty dollar bill out of his wallet. Joey paid the delivery guy and carried the pizza over to the coffee table.

 

Joey deeply inhaled the smell as he lifted the lid and sighed. “Ah, cheesy.” He slid a couple of pieces onto his plate and began to eat. The others began to dig in as well.

 

“Joey?” Joey looked up at JC, barely pausing as he was eating. “What color crayon did you pick to be?”

 

“Why?” Joey asked curiously.

 

“Well, Justin bringing up the question made me wonder, and I don’t think you answered,” JC explained.

 

“Ha!” Lance exclaimed. “You see, Chris, it really was an interesting question.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I still think you’re a dork,” Chris mumbled.

 

“Anyway, Joey, what crayon would you be?” JC asked again to get back on track.

 

Joey thought for a minute before saying, “Strawberry.”

 

“Strawberry’s a fruit, you nut,” Justin said.

 

“Nut? I thought we were talking about strawberries?” Lance asked with fake innocence. The others looked at each other and then chuckled appreciatively at Lance’s joke.

 

“Seriously, Joe, strawberry is a fruit, not a crayon.”

 

“Would you like me to find a box of crayons and show you?” Joey looked at Justin before continuing, “It’s a color.”

 

“No, it’s all right. We’ll take your word for it.”

 

“Why strawberry?” JC leaned in because he wanted to know the reason behind it.

 

“Because if I got hungry I could just eat a piece of myself,” Joey replied. The others burst out laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?” Joey asked, setting aside his pizza momentarily.

 

“Joey you can’t eat a piece of yourself,” Lance said.

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because you’d taste like wax, not strawberry, dumbass. Just because it’s called strawberry doesn’t mean it would taste like it,” Chris told him.

 

“Not to mention you’d be a cannibal if you did,” JC pointed out and all the guys laughed again at the idea.

 

Joey crossed his arms over his chest and mumbled, “You wanted to know.”

 

Lance realized that Joey was acting more hurt than he normally would let on. “Hey, man, we did want to know. We’re sorry for laughing, but it was just an answer we weren’t expecting.”

 

Joey sighed and uncrossed his arms. “I know. I’m sorry I let it get to me. I’m just really tired.”

 

“That’s understandable. We’ve all been busy lately,” Justin agreed.

 

“Not to mention Joey’s busy in another way. If you know what I mean,” Chris said as he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

 

The guys all burst out laughing again with Joey joining them this time. Conversation continued as usual and after a few hours the pizza was nearly polished off.

 

It was late, but they didn’t want to go to back to their rooms. Instead they just hung out in Lance’s room doing their own thing. Lance was doing business on his computer and Joey fell asleep while the others were watching some new scary movie on HBO.

 

The movie was really creepy and the guys were eating it up. It wasn’t often they found a scary movie as good as this one, especially since they didn’t usually have a lot of time to watch movies at all.

 

They were so into it that they all jumped when the door suddenly slammed.

They froze waiting to see if something was going to happen. They looked at each other and then started chuckling quietly.

 

“We’re really letting this movie get to us,” Lance said as the chuckles died down. It was obvious that nothing was going to happen and that the door slamming combined with the movie freaked them out.

 

It was silent for a few minutes before Joey asked, “Why did the door slam?”

 

Everyone just looked at each other and shrugged.

 

“Maybe it’s ghosts. Oooh!” Chris said, jokingly. Lance stopped typing, and JC gripped the arms of the chair he was sitting on so tight that his knuckles were turning white.

 

Chris had been expecting the others to laugh at it and was surprised to find they weren’t. “C’mon, guys, it was a joke.”

 

“It’s not something to joke about, Chris, and you know it!” JC yelled.

 

“Well, sorry for trying to make you guys laugh. Geez, JC, lighten up.”

 

“I just can’t believe that you’re making a joke about it when you know what we’ve all been through, including yourself.” JC left the room and slammed the door on his way out.

 

“Should someone go after him?” Justin asked concerned about his friend.

 

“No, just leave him be. He needs some time to cool down,” Lance answered, knowing that JC didn’t want to deal with anyone right now.

 

Shortly after Justin, Joey, and Chris vacated Lance’s room for their own. The fun had died down and they decided that they should get to bed because they had to be up in a few hours.

 

Lance had thought about going to talk to JC, but decided that JC would probably be sleeping by now. Lance went to bed knowing that he would talk to JC tomorrow before they left for the arena.

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

JC tossed and turned in his sleep, moaning when a particularly painful memory flashed into his dream. He always dreamt about the same thing and it disturbed him to no end. Normally dreams were a way to escape reality, but not this time.

 

He was in the middle of another bad dream when there was a sudden knock at the door. JC, who was once known as the heaviest sleeper, jumped up in bed. His heart racing in his chest as he tried to assess where he was and what woke him. There was another knock at the door and he realized that must have been what woke him up. He ran over to the door and opened it.

 

“Hey,” he panted as he opened the door and saw Lance.

 

“Hey,” Lance replied. “What’s got you all out of breath?”

 

“Oh I just jumped up and ran to the door,” JC said.

 

Lance raised a skeptical eyebrow, but said nothing. He knew that something was up, but didn’t want to dive into it right away. JC would avoid the question for as long as possible anyway.

 

Instead Lance asked, “Why aren’t you dressed? We have to leave for the arena in an hour.”

 

“Give me a break. I just woke up.”

 

Lance frowned a little at hearing this. Everyone else had already been up for two hours, but then again JC was known for sleeping as much as he could. Lance decided he was reading too much into it and pushed it to the back of his mind.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

JC turned from where he was sifting through his bag. “Of course I am.”

 

Lance was silent letting JC’s answer and his reaction to last night roll around in his head. Finally after a few minutes, he said, “Chris didn’t mean anything by it. You know that.”

 

“Of course I do.” JC sighed. “I just overreacted last night. His comment just caught me off guard.”

 

“Just like Joey’s did,” Lance said. Both of them laughed recalling Joey’s answer to the crayon question.

 

“What do you think is up with him anyway?” JC asked.

 

Lance shrugged. “I think he was just really tired from partying.”

 

“I’m sure you’re right. It’s certainly not serious enough to bug him about it,” JC agreed. “How much time do I have left?”

 

Lance looked at his watch. “About 45 minutes. Just enough time for you to get showered and dressed.”

 

“I’ll see you in a few then,” JC said before he shut the bathroom door. Lance let himself out and went to Justin’s room to make sure the others were ready.

 

Lance knocked on Justin’s door and waited for an answer. He heard a thump from inside before he was greeted by Justin who was red faced and was holding his side.

 

“What’s wrong with you?” Lance asked as Justin stepped aside to let him in.

 

“Nothing. Chris and I were just fighting over the remote and I fell off the couch.”

 

“Why can’t ya’ll just grow up?”

 

“Because you and JC are too serious. We balance the group out,” Justin explained.

 

“What does Joey do?” Lance asked.

 

“I help play pranks on you and Jace, but I’m also mature,” Joey said.

 

“Mature my ass,” said Chris. “You think you’re all wise now that you have a kid. That’s a laugh considering you’re still one big kid yourself.”

 

“At least I don’t look like a kid,” Joey retorted.

 

Chris stepped closer to Joey and raised himself onto his tiptoes. “Are you making fun of my height?”

 

“That’s exactly what I’m doing, Shorty,” Joey said stepping closer to Chris.

 

“All right, guys, that’s enough.” Lance stepped between the two of them in order to stop the wrestling match that was about to ensue. Both men laughed at Lance’s attempt, but decided to comply with him.

 

“What time is it?” Justin asked. “Shouldn’t we be heading for the arena?”

 

Lance looked at his watch. “It’s almost 10:30. We can’t leave with a fifth of the band missing.”

 

“Could you imagine the headlines that would appear?” Joey asked.

 

“Yeah, I can see it now. ‘Favorite *NSYNC member kills second favorite *NSYNC member’,” Chris laughed.

 

“Speaking of him…how’s he doing?” Justin turned to Lance looking concerned.

 

Lance sighed. “He says he’s fine.”

 

“But you believe differently?” Joey questioned.

 

“No, I never said that. You just know how JC is when it comes to talking about himself.”

 

“Yeah, he’s a closed book.” Chris hesitated before asking, “Is he still bugged about last night?”

 

“No, he knows you were joking. It just caught him off guard and he didn’t know how to deal with it. We’ve never really discussed it openly, you know,” Lance explained.

 

“Do you think we should?” Joey asked.

 

“No, it’s over and done with. No use raking up the past.” Lance figured that was the best way to handle it. Besides Lance didn’t feel entirely comfortable talking about it either. The four of them continued to watch TV until there was a knock at the door.

 

“I’ll get it!” Chris volunteered as he jumped up from the couch and ran over the door. He opened it and standing on the other side was JC who was clean and freshly shaven.

 

“About time! We’ve been waiting forever,” Chris exaggerated.

 

“You couldn’t have been waiting forever. You only got up three hours ago,” Lance spoke up from the couch.

 

Chris stuck his tongue out at him. “Whatever. We’re all here and in one piece. Can we go now?”

 

“Why are you so anxious to leave? You normally stall until the last second.” JC looked questioning at Chris.

 

Chris smiled innocently. “Oh, no reason.”

 

JC looked over at Lance. “I don’t like that look.” Chris laughed evilly with a glint in his eye.

 

“I don’t either, but Johnny will kill us if we’re late,” Lance said moving towards the door and motioning for the rest to follow him. The five of them migrated into the hall, down the elevator, out the front doors of the hotel, and into the limo that was parked right out front.

 

It was a short ride to the venue. Once there they were immediately directed to the stage where they ran over the choreography for the show twice before they were given a short break. It was a half hour break for lunch.

 

Lunch was pretty uneventful. They just sat around chatting away about nothing while they ate their lunch. JC had eased up a lot since they arrived at the venue. He had been waiting for Chris to pull some prank all morning. However, the entire morning had gone by with no such thing, allowing JC to breathe easy again.

 

Before they knew it their break was over and it was time for sound check. They all loved doing the sound check with the fans because they got to goof around with the fans for an hour before the show and let them sample a few songs that were part of the show.

 

The guys walked onto the stage carrying their water bottles with them and Chris bringing up the rear. They settled down onto the stools where they looked out at the 100 fans that were participating in this sound check.

 

“How’s everyone doing?” Justin asked. The crowd, mostly teenage girls, screamed in response. Justin and the others smiled.

 

“It’s nice to see so many smiling faces,” JC said as the sound of pictures being taken could be heard. “Let’s get started with a small piece of a song that you’ll be hearing tonight.”

 

The five of them sang into the headset that was still attached to them. They were so used to having the three pound piece of equipment attached to them that they hardly felt it anymore. They sang and the crowd just ate it up by singing along and swaying to the melodic tunes.

 

The piece ended and the five guys smiled at each other. They loved how they sounded together.

 

“Now we’re going to do a question and answer session before singing one more piece,” JC said.

 

“JC?” Chris asked with his arm behind his back.

 

“Yeah?” JC turned to look at him only to be squirted in the face with water. Once JC wiped the water out of his eyes, he saw that Chris was holding a water gun. JC shook his wet head and sent water spraying everywhere.

 

“Hey!” an indignant Joey cried when he was hit with water from JC’s hair.

 

“This means war!” Justin yelled before water went flying. All of them uncapped their bottles of water and were chucking the water at each other. By the time all the water was gone, they were all soaked from head to toe.

 

The fans had gone crazy laughing and snapping as many pictures as they could. The guys finished up sound check in wet clothes. Everyone left the stage very happy and it definitely showed in their performance that night. It was times that like this that they forgot about their problems.

It was eerily quiet on the tour bus. The five of them had decided to ride on the same bus this year considering what happened last time when they had split up. They figured that this time if something were to go wrong, they’d rather be together. Not that they were expecting something to happen, but there is always safety in numbers.

 

Everyone on the bus was off doing their own thing. JC was lying in his bunk trying to get more sleep. Chris was glued to the Playstation2 that was in the back of the bus. Joey was on the phone talking to his wife, Kelly. Lance was busy working on reading scripts for his movie company. Justin was sitting on the couch listening to the eerie silence recalling what had happened a few hours earlier before everyone got on the bus.

Chris still had a bunch of energy left over from the show for some reason and he was running up and down the hall just outside of where the dressing rooms were. He was running down the hall just as Joey came out of his dressing room still wiping the sweat off of his face before draping the towel around his shoulders. Chris wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and he slammed right into Joey throwing him backwards into the wall and himself onto the floor. 

Chris got up laughing. “I’m sorry, man.” 

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” Joey yelled. 

Chris’s eyes narrowed. “I said I was sorry. It was an accident.” 

“I don’t care. You shouldn’t be running down the halls anyway.” 

“I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died,” Chris said, “but I don’t like this new attitude you have. You’ve been bitchy all day long. What’s wrong with you?” 

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Joey shouted. By now Justin, Lance, and JC had joined them out into the hall drawn out of their dressing rooms by the shouting. 

“Something is wrong with you. The Joey I know wouldn’t freak out on someone because they accidentally ran into them. He would’ve laughed it off. You’re different, man,” Chris said. 

“You’re an asshole,” Joey growled. 

“I’m an asshole? I’m not the one making a big deal about nothing. That’s you.” Joey let out another growl of frustration before throwing up his arms and stalking onto the bus. JC and Lance had raised eyebrows as they looked at each other briefly before following him onto the bus. 

Justin, Lance, and JC had stayed out of it because they knew it would’ve been worse if they had gotten involved. They chalked Joey’s short temper up to the fact that he hadn’t gotten as much sleep as they thought he did. They just ignored the argument and got on the bus as if nothing had just transpired.

 

The more Justin thought about it though he realized that Chris was right. Joey was a mess. He didn’t know why he hadn’t seen it sooner. He always seemed to be tired and his temper was a lot shorter than it used to be. He was grumpy more often than he was happy, which was what he was known for. It made Justin wonder exactly what caused Joey’s attitude to change. He didn’t know, but knew that he would have to figure it out if he wanted things back to the way they were before.

 

If he wanted things back to the way they were before he would also have to deal with Lance and JC. They were bad, but the funny thing was you never would have noticed it if you weren’t looking for it. It was just recently that Justin picked up on the fact that they weren’t as fine as they appeared to be.

 

Justin looked over his shoulder to affirm that Lance was still sitting at the kitchen table typing away on his laptop with his glasses perched on his nose. It seemed that Lance had taken up that stance more often than usual. Justin had asked him about it a month after what happened and he insisted that he had so much to catch up on. Justin was beginning to question whether that was really true or not.

 

As for JC, Justin had noticed that his friend had been looking a little worse for the wear. He looked thinner than usual, which was significant considering how skinny JC is to begin with. He also noticed that JC nearly always had his notebook and pen attached to his hands. Normally Justin wouldn’t question this because JC is always known for constantly writing in his notebook, but it was the dark circles that appeared under his eyes and could only be hidden by makeup that made him question it.

 

The only ones that didn’t seem to have something wrong with them right now were Chris and himself. It seemed to Justin that Chris was still his normal self though one could never know with Chris. He was a master at hiding his feelings when he felt like it. That was an advantage Chris had from dealing with the hardships life had dealt him and his family.

 

Justin sighed as he watched Joey head into his bunk after hanging up his phone. He could only begin to wonder how everyone became so messed up. Deciding that he should go to bed as well, Justin stood up and stretched before heading over to where Lance was.

 

“You should get some sleep.”

 

Lance, having been startled, quickly looked up at Justin before breathing a sigh of relief. “I didn’t know you were still up.”

 

“Yeah, well, I was doing some thinking,” Justin said.

 

“Anything you want to share with me?” asked Lance.

 

“Not unless there’s something you want to share with me,” Justin answered.

 

“No, I’m good.” Lance paused before looking at Justin. “You would tell me if it was something serious, right?”

 

“Yeah, as long as you do the same, Lance.”

 

“Always,” Lance replied.

 

“Well, I guess I’m going to head to bed. It’s getting kind of late,” Justin said pointedly looking at Lance.

 

“I’ll go to bed in a few minutes. I’ll just finish up here real quick,” Lance said.

 

Justin crossed his arms. “Lance, if you do that you’ll be sitting here all night.”

 

Lance sighed knowing that Justin was right. “All right. Just let me save and close down everything. I’ll go to bed as soon as I’m done with that.”

 

“I’m holding you too that. Good night.”

 

“Night, Justin.”

 

Justin climbed into his bunk, which happened to be across from JC’s. Justin noticed that JC had his curtain closed. Joey was snoring in his bunk beside Justin while Chris was sleeping under JC’s bunk.

 

Justin lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t get himself to fall asleep if he tried. He continued to lay there for five minutes before he heard Lance walk by and slip into his bunk underneath Joey.

 

Justin slowly began to drift off to sleep hoping that he could find out what was up with his brothers and somehow help them get back to normal. Just as he was about to fall asleep he heard light whimpering. It took a few minutes for his brain to realize through the hazy sleep that it was JC who was whimpering.

 

He gently eased himself out of his bunk and onto the floor. He didn’t want to wake any of his band mates except for the one who was currently in the middle of a nightmare. Justin softly padded over to where JC’s bunk was before pulling back the curtains to find JC with tears rolling down his cheeks and trying to move in the small space.

 

Justin stretched out his hand and clasped it around JC’s shoulder before he began to shake him. “JC, c’mon wake up.”

 

“C, it’s time to wake up. You’re fine. Everyone’s fine.”

 

He gave up shaking JC and gently smacked JC’s cheek instead. JC woke up with a start. His blue eyes that almost looked black in the dim lighting of the bus were wide with terror.

 

“It’s okay, JC. It was just a dream.”

 

JC nodded, but Justin knew that it felt so real to him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

 

“No, I’m all right, Just. Thanks though.”

 

“All right. I’m heading to bed. If you need anything, you know where to find me,” Justin said.

 

“Good night, J.”

 

“Night, JC.”

 

Justin didn’t feel that great leaving JC to just deal with that dream by himself, but he knew better than to push JC. He was such a private person even from those that knew him best. However, that didn’t stop the curiosity Justin had for wanting to know what the dream was about because it seemed to upset JC.

 

He could hear JC moving around in his bunk and could only wonder what he was doing. About an hour later Justin heard JC’s breathing slow down and smooth out signaling that he was asleep. Justin fell asleep shortly after him, but not before vowing to get to the bottom of everything that was going on with his friends.

 

The rest of the night passed with no more disturbances. It allowed the five occupants of the bus to sleep peacefully while the bus kept on rolling to their next destination. About three hours later it reached that destination.

 

Lance woke up as the bus came to a halt. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times to clear the sleep out of his eyes before looking at his watch. Lance unwrapped himself from his blankets and stood up to stretch. He was glad that he took Justin’s advice and went to bed when he did. He just had this weird feeling that it was going to be a trying day.

 

He didn’t let his thoughts linger on it for too long though before he moved to wake the rest of the guys up. He shook each of the guys and called their names.

 

“C’mon, guys. We’re at the hotel. We need to get moving.”

 

Slowly the other four men got out of their bunks and gathered their things before heading into the hotel. Luckily for them they didn’t have to worry about fans because it was still early in the morning.

 

They reached their designated floor before splitting up in separate directions to drop off their things in their rooms. They were going to meet in JC’s room for breakfast.

 

Justin set his duffle bag and suitcases down by the foot of his bed. He knew that today would be the best day to try to find out some answers about what was going on. He could only hope that he would be able to help them fix it.

 

He walked a couple doors down the hall until he reached JC’s door. He stood in front of it for a few minutes trying to steel himself for what he knew was about to take place.

 

“C’mon, Justin, you can do this,” he said to himself.

 

Justin took a deep breath and let it out. He knew that it had to be now or never. He just hoped it wouldn’t be a complete disaster.

As Justin opened the door to JC’s room he noticed immediately that it was relatively quiet. The guys briefly look up at his entrance and greeted him whether it was with a nod or a hello. It seemed that he was the last one to arrive. Even the food had beaten him there.

 

Justin walked over to the food cart that was in the kitchen area of the hotel room. He grabbed a plate and piled his favorite breakfast foods onto it. He then made his way over to the couch where there was a spot between JC and Chris.

 

Justin was halfway through his breakfast while the others were finishing up theirs before he realized what they had been watching on TV. “You guys have to be kidding me! Blue’s Clues?”

 

“It’s the only thing on this early in the morning. You think you can find something better? Be my guest,” Joey muttered.

 

Chris heard Joey’s comment and began to hum “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast. Everyone let out a chuckle except for Joey.

 

“Chris, will you knock it off?” Joey snapped.

 

“What’s your problem?” Chris asked he stopped humming and glared at Joey.

 

“You. You’re my problem.”

 

Chris narrowed his eyes. “You asshole.”

 

“Joey, Chris is just being Chris. You know that. You’ve practically lived with him for 10 years. How is it that now you go about snapping at him all the time?” Justin said.

 

“What are you talking about? This is the first time I’ve snapped at him,” Joey said.

 

“Yeah, today,” Justin replied. “You snapped at him last night whenever he ran into you in the hall at the venue.”

 

“Well, he should have watched where he was going. He needs to learn how to grow up. None of us run up and down the halls after a concert.”

 

“Listen to yourself, Joey. You never used to be bothered by something like that. What’s changed?” Justin asked.

 

“Nothing, nothing’s changed. I just think it’s time you guys, Chris more than anyone, starts acting their age,” Joey said.

 

“Justin’s right, Joey. The old Joey used to join in the fun and be so happy. What happened to him?” Lance asked.

 

“He’s still here. He’s just grown up a bit.”

 

“That’s not it. You may have grown up, but that shouldn’t change who you are. The person that you are now is different than the Joey we used to know. Why don’t you just admit that you have a problem?” Lance said.

 

“Because I don’t have a problem!” roared Joey. “If you guys want to talk about someone who has a problem, talk about JC or Lance. They have a problem, not me!”

 

Joey stalked out of the room and slammed the door behind him. The four other guys looked at each other and shrugged. They would figure out what was wrong with Joey eventually.

 

Justin sighed knowing that the only thing he had succeeded in so far was pissing off one of his best friends. However, he knew that he had to keep pressing on if he wanted to help them. He might get them all mad at him, but then at least it would be brought to everyone’s attention that they did have a problem and needed help.

 

It took him a few minutes to be able to gently open the conversation back up. The tension was thick in the room and just seemed to settle there, especially since no one was talking.

 

“Guys…” Justin tried.

 

Justin cleared his throat and tried again. “Guys…”

 

“Guys…”

 

“What, Justin?” Chris finally asked.

 

“Well, I was thinking that maybe Joey had a point.”

 

“About what?” Lance asked as he turned to look at Justin.

 

“About you and JC having a problem,” Justin answered.

 

“I don’t have a problem,” JC objected.

 

“Neither do I,” Lance said.

 

“Yeah, right. You both know that you have a problem. JC, you’re not sleeping well and have been having nightmares. Lance, you’re becoming more of a workaholic than you used to be,” Justin explained.

 

“That’s not true!” JC and Lance protested at the same time.

 

“If it’s not true, then why do you have those black circles under your eyes, JC? Lance, the same thing goes for you. You’re on your laptop so much we should just glue the damn thing to your fingers,” Chris said.

 

“All right, fine, I’ll admit that I haven’t been sleeping as well as I used to,” JC said.

 

“Because of your nightmares?” Justin asked.

 

“I’ve only had one nightmare, Justin.”

 

“JC, you know that’s not true. You’ve had more than one,” Lance said. JC turned to give Lance and icy glare.

 

“Do you want to…”

 

JC cut Justin off, not even aware that he had started to say something. “What about you and your problem, Lance? I find it hard to believe that you have as much to do as you claim.”

 

Lance sighed. “I’ve just had a bunch of work to catch up on. You know how busy my companies have become.”

 

“I think JC’s right. There’s more to it than that,” Justin said.

 

“Justin, you should just back off. Maybe working keeps my mind off of other things,” Lance argued.

 

“What kind of things?” Justin leaned forward in his seat. He was beginning to think they were finally getting somewhere.

 

“Well, you know…uh…stuff,” Lance stuttered.

 

“What kind of stuff?” Justin pressed.

 

Lance sighed. “Justin, will you please just drop it?”

 

“But we just want to help you,” Justin said.

 

“I know you do, but if I did have a problem I’m not sure I’d be ready to talk just yet.”

 

“You’ll let me know when you are though, right Lance?”

 

“Yes, Justin.”

 

“OK, well, I guess I’m going to go take a shower before we have to meet up for sound check,” Chris said as he stood up. He left the room knowing that Justin would eventually give up and follow. Chris knew from experience that no one could push either one of them, especially JC, to talk if they didn’t want to.

 

“Lance, are you sure there isn’t anything you want to tell me?” Justin asked once the door shut behind Chris.

 

“Yes, Justin, I’m sure,” Lance answered. He was becoming annoyed with all the questions Justin had been asking.

 

Justin nodded and Lance knew that he decided to drop the subject for now. “JC,” Justin started.

 

“No, Justin,” JC growled. “I don’t want to talk about my nightmares or my sleeping problems. Just leave me alone!”

 

Justin sat in silence for a few seconds. JC was pretty scary when he was mad and Justin had only seen him like that a few times. “All right. I’m going to go take a shower. I’ll see you guys later.”

 

Justin got up from where he had been sitting and left the room closing the door gently behind him. Once the door was shut Lance looked over at JC to see that he had the remote in his hand and was trying to find something good on TV to watch. Lance sat there staring at JC wondering what his nightmares were when he realized he didn’t have to wonder. He could take a look inside JC’s brain himself.

 

Lance knew that what he was about to do was wrong, but he couldn’t stop himself. He was upset that JC would hide something like this from him. Lance watched as the hotel room seemed to fade away and in its place were the woods that JC and Justin had found them in last year.

 

Lance watched as the two demons came back to the very spot where Lance’s life had nearly been sucked out of him and proceeded to do just that. Instead of Justin and JC coming to the rescue like they had, they were there being forced to watch by some invisible force. Lance watched as the life was sucked out of him, Joey, and Chris before the demons rounded on Justin. He could see Justin grow weaker and JC struggling on his spot to help his friend. Finally the demons finished the job and JC was the only one left. They didn’t touch him and instead left him to himself. Lance saw JC collapse to the ground weeping for his lost friends.

 

“What are you staring at?”

 

Lance jumped when he heard JC’s voice. JC’s voice instantly brought him back to reality and Lance broke off the connection with him. “I’m sorry I was just thinking.”

 

“About what?”

 

“About your nightmares,” Lance finally admitted after sitting in silence for a few minutes trying to build enough courage to bring it up in front of JC, especially after his explosion at Justin.

 

“Like I told Justin, I don’t want to talk about them.”

 

“But, JC, you need to get it what’s bugging you off your chest. You’re going to keep having the same nightmare over and over until you talk about it.”

 

“What does it matter anyway? I know that they can’t come true. It’s just that sometimes they feel so real. I mean if they came back befo…never mind,” JC said.

 

“Oh, please, like the demons are going to find us and kill everyone except you.” As soon as the words left Lance’s mouth he knew he was in for it. He hadn’t meant to say it and now he knew he just opened up a new can of worms.

 

JC turned to look at him. “What? How could you possible know that?”

 

“Lucky guess?” Lance suggested and JC crossed his arms as he narrowed his eyes. “OK, OK, I sort of went through your mind to find out the information.”

 

“You what!” JC yelled.

 

“I’m sorry, JC, but I was concerned. The others do have a point and you can’t forget about that time I caught you after you just had a nightmare. JC, I haven’t seen you get a full night’s sleep in a long time. You’re going to make yourself sick,” Lance said.

 

“I am not and you think you understand because of what you went through when I almost died, but you don’t! There’s no way you could ever understand, Lance!”

 

“Why don’t you tell me? I want to help you through this.”

 

“Why would I tell you when you can just read my mind anyway?” JC yelled.

 

“I wouldn’t want to violate your privacy like that, JC.”

 

“Well, too late. You already have, Lance! Might as well finish what you were looking for!”

 

“No, I don’t want to do that to you. I’m sorry that I did it once without your permission. I’m just worried about you, about everyone. I only wanted to help.”

 

“You want to help? Then stay out of my head!” JC shouted at Lance before he left the hotel room slamming the door behind him. JC didn’t care that he was leaving his own hotel room. He just needed to get away to a place where he could be left alone to think. He needed to clear his head as much as possible before the concert.

Needless to say the concert that night wasn’t one of their best. They were all off. It wasn’t anything that the audience would notice, but it was the little things. Their hearts weren’t into the segment of the show where they joke around with each other. They had to force themselves to laugh at each other and crack jokes. There was a collective sigh of relief when they had stepped off the stage that night.

 

The ride back to the hotel room was silent. Each of them was thinking about what had happened earlier that day. Justin was more concerned than ever. He had thought that talking to the guys about their problems would make him feel better, but he felt worse. He could only hope he would figure out some way to fix their problems.

 

Justin wasn’t alone in that aspect. Chris was worried too. He had his suspicions earlier, but he let them go because he figured whatever they were would heal themselves. From what had happened earlier Chris now knew that he would have to help Justin fix JC, Joey, and Lance’s problems.

 

While Chris and Justin were feeling worried Joey, Lance, and JC were mad and upset that they had been called out on their problem. They had thought they did a good job of hiding it, but apparently they hadn’t done as well as they thought they did. As soon as the van stopped all five of them jumped out. Everyone was heading into the hotel to crash after a long day. Everyone except Joey.

 

“Hey.” Justin stopped as he realized Joey wasn’t with them. “Where’s Joey?”

 

The other three stopped and turned around to look back towards where the van had dropped them off. What they saw was Joey walking the opposite direction.

 

“I’ll go see where he’s going,” Chris volunteered and ran to catch up with Joey.

 

“Joey!” Chris slowed and fell instep with Joey. “Where are you going, man? Aren’t you tired?”

 

“I’m going to hit the clubs.” Joey kept walking without even bothering to look over at Chris.

 

“But aren’t you tired?” Chris repeated his other question.

 

Joey turned his head sharply. “What are you? My mother?”

 

“No, I just figured you’d be tired.”

 

“Well, I’m not,” Joey answered annoyed.

 

They walked in silence for a minute or two. “I’ll just see you later then. Have fun, man.” Chris had thought about asking Joey if he wanted some company, but it was pretty clear by his demeanor that he didn’t. Chris shrugged and ran back to where the other three were still standing.

 

“Well?” JC demanded when Chris reached them. His worry about Joey was enough for him to push aside his anger towards his friends.

 

“He’s going clubbing,” Chris said as he led the way into the hotel with the other three following.

 

“Isn’t he tired?” Justin asked.

 

“Apparently not.” Chris stepped into the elevator and waited until they were all in before he pressed the button for their floor.

 

“When was the last time he stayed in?” JC asked.

 

Lance looked over at JC. He knew the only reason this conversation hadn’t resulted in a fight was because they were all too worried about Joey to really care about their feelings. “You know, come to think of it. It has been a long time since he’s stayed in the hotel room. That’s probably why he’s so grouchy. He never gets enough sleep.”

 

“Do you think that’s his problem? He’s not getting enough sleep?” Chris asked.

 

“I doubt it’s the whole reason, but it’s probably part of it,” Lance said.

 

“Should we talk to him about it tomorrow?” Justin was a little hesitant to go down that road again.

 

“It wouldn’t hurt. He might not get so upset if we just ask him about it instead of accusing him,” Lance answered. Just then the elevator dinged signally that they had reach their floor. The four of them got off.

 

“We’re leaving in the morning, right?” JC asked.

 

“Yeah, so we can talk to him then.” Lance couldn’t help but think that it might make the situation worse if it just so happened that it went as badly or maybe even worse than the one they’d had earlier.

 

“Well, good night.” Chris waved and stepped into his room. There was a chorus of good nights all around as everyone else headed to their rooms. Lance was about to slide his card key in the lock when he looked down the hall and saw that JC was just approaching his door.

 

Lance withdrew his outstretched key and pocketed it instead. He made his way down the hall towards JC. Lance knew that if he wanted to fix things now would be the time to do because JC was at least being civil.

 

Lance just caught JC’s arm before he could enter his room. “Can we talk, JC?”

 

“Why do we need to talk? You know what I’m thinking,” JC replied bitterly.

 

“No, I don’t, JC. Can we talk, please? I’ll make it quick I swear.”

 

JC sighed. “Fine.” He gestured for Lance to enter his room and followed him in. He sat on his bed. “Talk.”

 

“JC, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go into your mind.” Lance saw JC glare at him. “OK, so I did mean to, but I am sorry I did it. I was worried. We haven’t kept secrets from each other since…you know.”

 

“You disrespected my privacy. I would’ve never done that to you, Lance.”

 

“I know, and I really am sorry. It will never happen again. I will stay out of your mind completely.”

 

Lance was about to walk to the door, but was stopped by JC’s voice. “You don’t have to stay out completely. The system we had going before was working well. We need to have some secrets for ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop communicating with each other.”

 

“I promise to stay out of your head unless we’re talking.” Lance hugged JC.

 

“Good.” JC yawned and Lance laughed.

 

“I’ll let you get to bed. See you in the morning.”

 

“Good night, Lance.”

 

“Good night, JC.” Lance left JC’s room and headed for his own. He got ready for bed and fell asleep more at ease now that he and JC had made amends.

  

“Joey!” There was pounding at the door. “Open up, Joey!”

 

Joey, who was lying in his bed on his stomach, groaned and pulled his pillow over his head to block out the sound of pounding fists at the door. He hoped that whoever was at the door would give up and go away. The pounding continued for another minute or two before it stopped.

 

Joey had thought that whoever it was did give up and was about to fall back asleep when he heard the door open. It was then that he remembered that everyone had a key to each other’s room incase there was an emergency and they needed to get in.

 

“Get up, Joey!” JC yelled as he yanked Joey’s pillow away from his head.

 

“No,” Joey mumbled into the comforter. He didn’t want to deal with this. All he wanted to do was sleep off a killer headache he was getting.

 

“Yes. You need to explain what the hell you were thinking!” JC threw something at the back of Joey’s head.

 

Joey growled. He rolled over to grab what had hit him.

 

“Jesus, Joey. You got the shit beat out of you,” Chris said. Joey was momentarily confused before he began to remember what happened last night. He picked up what had hit him and found that it was a tabloid with his picture on the front cover with his one fist raise and the other one connecting with another man’s face.

 

JC took in Joey’s black and blue eye, busted lip, and other bruises that were littered across his body. “Would you care to explain to us how you ‘got the shit beat out of you,’ as Chris so eloquently put it, and your face ended up on the front page of Star?”

 

“What are you yelling at me for? I didn’t start the fight!” Joey glared at JC. He hated when JC got overprotective like this.

 

JC crossed his arms and glared right back at Joey. “Well, you sure as hell finished it!”

 

“You don’t even know what happened!”

 

“I would if you would just tell us!” JC fired back.

 

“Why do I need to tell you? You’ve obviously read all about it!” Joey yelled.

 

“Yes, but we didn’t hear your side of the story,” Lance piped in. Justin was just watching this scene in awe. He had never seen JC and Joey go at it like this before. Chris just kept quiet knowing that Lance and JC had this situation covered. If this had happened before their lives changed, then Chris wouldn’t have seen it as a big deal, but knowing that Joey had been having problems was enough to let Chris know that this wasn’t good.

 

Joey sighed. Good ole Lance. He would never yell at anyone. He didn’t have it in him. “I’m sure that’s got all the details covered.”

 

“They could be the wrong details. Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Lance sat down across from Joey.

 

“Fine,” Joey said. “Well, I was in there getting a drink to-well, you know, relax. I was minding my own business, sitting at the bar, and talking to this girl when some guy comes over and gets all in my face. I warned him that he needed to get out of my face, but he just spouted on about how I was hitting on his girlfriend.”

 

“Well, were you?” Lance asked.

 

Joey glared. “I’m married, Lance.”

 

“I know, but you weren’t known as the flirt for no reason.” Lance paused for a few seconds and repeated, “Were you?”

 

Joey thought for a minute. “I…I guess I had a little more to drink than I thought. I wasn’t even aware what I was doing. It just came to me naturally, you know?”

 

“So the guy was pissed?” Justin asked. He pushed himself off from where he had been leaning against the wall and moved closer to Joey.

 

“Yeah, and I told him that if he didn’t want guys hitting on his girlfriend then he shouldn’t leave her sitting alone at the bar. And then he hit me.”

 

“And you fought back,” JC said with conviction.

 

“What did you want me to do? Look like a wuss?” Joey replied.

 

“If that’s what it takes to keep you from getting in a fight then yes! Not to mention you were fighting over another man’s woman when you have Kelly. How do you think Kelly feels about all of this?” JC yelled.

 

Joey paled at that thought. He hadn’t thought about Kelly. He knew that he had to call her as soon as possible. He could only hope that she would be able to forgive him.

 

JC sighed as he watched the emotions pass over Joey’s face at the mention of his wife. He knew that Joey hadn’t been fully aware of what he was doing and that he regretted it now. JC unfolded his arms and walked over to Joey.

 

“C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up.” JC gestured to Joey’s wounds that he hadn’t attended to when he got in last night. Joey had been so tired that he just passed out on his bed as he had walked into his hotel room.

 

“What are we going to do about the article?” Joey asked.

 

JC looked over at Lance. “Lance and I will come up with something. We’ll say that it’s from all of the pressure lately or something like that.”

 

“You think that’ll work?” Justin asked as he watched Joey slowly rise from the bed.

 

“Well, I can talk to Johnny about some of our options. I think this is the worst of it. This guy won’t be able to sue because he had been the one to instigate it and he knows that,” Lance said.

 

JC was starting to lead Joey to the bathroom when Chris stopped them. “Here, let me. You can go with Lance and talk to Johnny. I’ll play doctor.”

 

JC nodded and left the room. Lance and Justin followed leaving Chris to take care of Joey’s wounds.

 

Lance spent an hour talking to Johnny to smooth out the fight and what to say in front of the press. They decided to say that Joey was acting in self-defense because this guy had approached him looking for a fight. While it wasn’t the whole truth, it was enough to get the media to let up a little and give Joey some credit back.

 

Chris had joined them halfway through Lance’s phone call and joined up with Justin to play some Playstation while they waited to see what would happen with Joey. JC was busy scribbling away in his notebook. Finally Lance hung up the phone.

 

“How’s he doing?” Lance asked Chris, being that he didn’t have the chance when Chris had first come in.

 

Chris paused the game and looked up. “He’s fine. He’s on the phone with Kelly.”

 

“I’m sure they’ll work it out. Joey’s not bad. He wouldn’t hurt anyone intentionally,” Lance said.

 

“I don’t know. I think he hurt what’s-his-face intentionally,” Chris said.

 

Lance threw a pillow at him. “You know what I mean.”

 

The four of them laughed. Lance caught JC’s eye when he had looked up. Lance raised an eyebrow in silent question. JC sighed in reluctance and nodded. They were too caught up in what they were doing to notice that Justin was watching them. Justin had seen what they were doing and after a few minutes said, “Oh!”

 

Lance, JC, and Chris turned to look at him. “What Justin?”

 

“I just remembered that I need to speak with you, JC,” Justin said.

 

“But we’re in the middle of a game!” Chris protested.

 

“Sorry, Chris, but this can’t wait.” Justin got up and motioned for JC to follow him. JC glanced at Lance before walking out the door and down to Justin’s room. As soon as the door was shut Justin started to mumble to himself.

 

“I don’t know how I could’ve been so stupid.”

 

“What were you so stupid about, Justin?” JC had this knack for hearing people even when they were speaking softly.

 

“You and Lance.”

 

“What about me and Lance?

 

“You guys can read each other’s minds!” Justin said as if it were obvious.

 

“What are you talking about, Justin? Lance and I can’t read each other’s minds.” JC thought that if he denied it that Justin would think that he was imagining things and forget it. But it didn’t work like that.

 

“Yes, you can. You told me! Don’t you remember? You told me when me and you drove out to save Lance, Joey, and Chris. You said you thought you guys were telepathic. I don’t know how I forgot about that.”

 

JC looked at Justin in shock. He had completely forgotten that he had told Justin in all of the craziness that night had brought. “How…how…how did you…”

 

“How did I put it together?” Justin asked JC’s question for him. JC nodded. “Well, I didn’t until just now. I saw Lance give you a raised eyebrow and you nod at him. I thought that was kind of weird, but then I thought back and realized that you two have done that a lot since what happened. That was when I remembered what you told me, and here we are.”

 

Justin let what he said to JC process and waited to see if he would say something. He didn’t, so Justin continued. “Why didn’t you tell us? Why all the secrecy?”

 

JC sighed. He knew that there was no sense in hiding anything else. “Lance and I wanted time to get used to this. Plus we weren’t even sure if it was going to stay or if it was just a fluke thing.”

 

“You should tell Joey and Chris,” Justin said.

 

“I don’t know, Justin. I-“

 

“Just think about it,” Justin requested. JC opened his mouth to protest when there was a knock on the door. Lance’s voice floated through.

 

“Guys, we need to go. It’s time to head over for sound check.”

 

JC took this opportunity to leave. He needed to get away from Justin for a little bit and think about what he was going to do. He knew that he would have to let Lance know that Justin found out soon.

 

It was very hectic when they reached the venue. Make-up was having a hard time hiding Joey’s bruises, but they did their best. JC was the first one ready for the concert and was hanging out backstage before they had to go on. Lance came up behind him.

 

“Are you all right?”

 

“I’m fine. Just thinking about some things,” JC answered.

 

“Anything you want to talk about?” Lance asked.

 

JC shook his head. “Maybe later.”

 

Lance nodded. He knew JC would come to him whenever he was ready. He always liked to have his thoughts in order before he talked to anyone. It wasn’t long before the other three came out from wardrobe ready to start that night’s concert.

 

As they positioned themselves onstage JC tried to stop himself from thinking about everything that had been going wrong lately like Joey and his problems, Justin finding out, and his nightmares. However, he was unsuccessful.

 

JC was able to make it through the first half of the concert without any major mistakes, but everyone knew that he was off. Then came the part of the concert where they did a routine with some of the songs and dance moves from their other tours. They were on their last segment of it, which was ‘It Makes Me Ill.’ JC managed to make it through that and when the guys all fell onstage like planned, JC was the only one not to get up.

 

“JC, come on. This is no time to take a nap,” Chris whispered jokingly although the three knew he was worried. JC was a professional and would never do something unplanned.

 

They waited a few more seconds to see if JC was just messing with them. When those seconds passed and JC was still lying on the stage, they realized that something was seriously wrong with JC.

Silence. That was all that could be heard as four fifths of *NSYNC sat in a waiting room of a nearby hospital as they anxiously awaited news on their band mate. Time seemed to creep by. The only indication they had that time was indeed moving was the steady ticking of the second hand on the clock above the nurse’s desk.

 

Chris sighed as he slouched down even further into the uncomfortable hospital chair. He, along with the rest of the guys, was in shock that this had happened, especially to JC. JC was the responsible one who took care of the other guys and still managed to make time to care for himself.

 

Chris partially blamed himself for not doing something sooner. He knew that JC had been looking terrible from lack of sleep and yet he had done nothing. He just let JC’s behavior continue and now look what had happened. The rock of the group was in the hospital suffering from exhaustion. Chris thought back to the moment they’d realized that JC wasn’t going to be getting up.

“What are we going to do?” Justin asked his voice filled with worry. 

“We need to get him help. Joey, grab his feet and I’ll get his arms. We’ll take him backstage until help can arrive,” Chris said. 

“I’ll go call for help.” Lance ran off the stage. 

The arena was pitch black with the exception of the small flicker of light that came from the skit that was playing on the jumbo screen to introduce the audience to the next song. It was this little bit of light that allowed Chris and Joey to see where JC was so they didn’t step on him. They bent down, lifted JC’s body into the air, and carried him off the stage.

“C’mon, Justin,” Joey hissed when he saw Justin still standing in the same spot. 

That seemed to snap Justin out of his state. He ran ahead of Joey and Chris to make sure the path was clear so they wouldn’t run into anything while carrying JC. 

Finally after a few minutes the three of them ran into Lance in the hall backstage. “C’mon, we’ll put him in the toy room. The ambulance should be here in a few minutes.” 

They followed Lance into the toy room, and Chris and Joey gently placed JC’s limp body on the couch. Chris frowned as looked down at JC. He was a little surprised that JC hadn’t moved at all while he and Joey had carried him. When Lance had collapsed back when they first started he had unconsciously moved. If it wasn’t for JC’s shallow breathing Chris could’ve mistaken him for dead. 

Chris shivered at that thought. “Just hang on, buddy. We’re getting you help.” 

True to Lance’s word a few minutes later they could hear sirens and people, who they could only assume were paramedics, yelling to see where they were needed. 

Joey got up and ran out into the hall. “In here!” he yelled as he spotted the paramedics. They rushed into the room after Joey. 

All they could do was watch as the two paramedics placed JC on a stretcher and stabilized him. Justin winced as he watched one of the paramedics insert an IV into JC’s arm. He knew that JC would’ve been freaking out had he been awake to see it. 

They followed the paramedics out to the ambulance. “Who’s going to ride with him?” Lance asked. 

“I’ll go,” Justin volunteered. He jumped into the ambulance. Lance, Joey, and Chris jumped into an awaiting van for them to follow the ambulance. The red and white lights lit up the surrounding area and the piercing howl of the siren filled the air as the ambulance sped off down the road. 

A half hour had passed since they had arrived at the hospital. Chris shifted impatiently in his chair. He thought that a half hour was too long considering he didn’t need surgery or anything. That made his mind skip to the thought that maybe JC’s condition was worse than he thought and he did need surgery.

 

Chris shook his head to clear his thoughts. He decided to strike up a conversation to help take his mind off of it. “Hey, Joey.”

 

“Yeah?” Joey looked up from the spot he was staring at the floor.

 

“How did your phone call go with Kelly?”

 

Joey sighed. “She was pissed, of course. I can’t blame her.”

 

“Did she forgive you?” Lance asked. He too was looking for a distraction. He had been counting the holes in the ceiling tiles.

 

Joey half smiled. “It’s one of the many things I love about her. She made me promise to stay away from clubs, at least for a while, and I plan on sticking to that.”

 

Chris was about to say something else when he heard someone walk up to them. “Are you all here for Joshua Chasez?”

 

The four of them stood up and faced the doctor. “Yes, we are,” Lance said.

 

“I’m Doctor Peterson. I checked over your friend and stabilized him.”

 

“How is he?” Joey asked.

 

“He’s doing as well as can be expected. We have him connected to an IV that is supplying his body with the nutrients he’s been deprived. Has something happened recently that would cause him to neglect eating and sleeping properly?” Doctor Peterson asked.

 

They exchanged looks with each other wondering how much to tell the doctor. “About a month ago,” Chris paused before continuing, “We had something sort of traumatic happen.”

 

“I see. Has he seen anyone to talk about what happened?”

 

Chris shook his head. “We’ve been finishing up our tour. It’s been kind of hectic.”

 

“Well, I really recommend that he see a psychiatrist. It’s obvious from his condition that he isn’t handling what happened very well and needs some help,” Doctor Peterson said.

 

“Would it be all right if we helped him through it? He’s a very private person. I doubt he’d open up to any psychiatrist that we’d set him up with,” Lance said.

 

“If you believe that’s the best thing for him,” Doctor Peterson replied. “Just as long as the problem is addressed so this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.”

 

“It won’t,” Chris agreed.

 

“Can we see him now?” Justin asked. The other three turned to face Justin. They had almost forgotten that he was there because he hadn’t said anything until just now. Chris rationalized that Justin was so quiet because he and JC were so close, and he probably blamed himself for not doing something more to help JC.

 

“Of course. He’s in room 318. He was asleep when I left him, but if he isn’t awake when you go in he should be within the next few hours. I’ll be around so page me if he needs something or any of you have any questions. I’ll be in to check on him after I make my rounds,” Doctor Peterson said.

 

Doctor Peterson made a left down the hall while Justin led the rest of the guys down the hall to the right. Justin slowly entered room 318. He walked over to JC’s bedside and sat down in a chair next to it. Justin looked down at JC and thought that he had never seen him look so horrible.

 

JC’s face was pale white with the exception of his eyes, which had large, black circles under them. The IV was sticking out of his right arm. Justin couldn’t help, but flashback to how Lance looked after he collapsed. As of right now Justin would say it is a toss up as to who looked worse.

 

Chris walked over to Justin and placed a hand on his shoulder. Justin looked up at Chris and that look confirmed his suspicions that Justin placed at least some blame on the state JC was in. He knew that he and Justin would have to talk later. The last thing they needed was another problem to fix.

 

“Guys, I think he’s waking up,” Joey said. Chris and Justin drew their attention back to JC. His eyelids were flickering. After a few seconds JC wearily opened his eyes.

 

“Hey there, Sleepyhead. You are in so much trouble for giving us a heart attack like that,” Chris joked and JC cracked a small, sleepy smile.

 

“How are you feeling?” Lance asked.

 

“Tired,” JC mumbled.

 

“Well, get some sleep. We’ll be here,” Justin said.

 

JC turned to look at Justin. “Don’t blame yourself.” JC glanced at each of the guys. “None of you.”

 

“How the hell does he do that?” Joey asked no one in particular.

 

“You wish…you had talent…like this,” JC replied sleepily. His eyes started to droop.

 

“Go ahead and rest. Your body needs it,” Lance said. They stayed and watched JC fall into a relaxed sleep.

 

“I’m surprised he didn’t freak what with having a needle in him and all,” Chris said.

 

“I don’t think he was aware of where he was otherwise he would have,” Joey replied.

 

Lance and Joey noticed how down Justin looked and caught Chris’ eyes. He motioned for them to leave so he could talk to Justin.

 

“You want to get some coffee, Joey?” Lance asked.

 

“Sure, why not? I’m sure you’re feeling caffeine deprived by now,” Joey joked.

 

Lance rolled his eyes. “Do you guys want anything?”

 

Chris looked over at Justin and saw him shake his head. “No, we’re good.”

 

“OK, we’ll see you two later.” Joey and Lance left the room and gently shut the door behind them.

 

Chris and Justin sat in silence as Chris tried to gather his thoughts. After a few minutes Justin spoke up, “Let me save you the trouble. I know it’s not my fault that this happened and I shouldn’t be feeling guilty. Does that cover what you were going to say?”

 

“Most of it, yeah,” Chris admitted. “However, if you’re going to place blame on anyone you should place it on me.”

 

“You? What did you do?” Justin asked as he turned away from JC’s bed to face Chris.

 

“Nothing, just like you. I know that you blame yourself for not doing anything about JC’s problem once it was confirmed that he had one. I know because I’m doing the same thing. You felt like you could’ve done more.”

 

“I could have! I could’ve forced JC to talk about his nightmares, or at least watch him more closely to make sure he was taking care of himself,” Justin said.

 

“It wouldn’t have worked,” Chris said knowingly.

 

“How do you know?” Justin asked.

 

“Because JC would’ve never let you watch him while he ate or force him to talk about his nightmares. I know that, and you know that.”

 

Justin let what Chris said sink in and sighed in defeat. “You’re right, but I feel like I could’ve done more. It just seems wrong that JC’s so focused on taking care of us, and we don’t return the favor.”

 

“That’s just how JC is. It’s in his nature, but now is our chance to return the favor. We’ll help him get through this and fix his problems.”

 

“What if he doesn’t let us?” Justin asked.

 

“He doesn’t have a choice. Besides, if he tries to refuse me and you can take him,” Chris said and Justin laughed.

 

“You’re right. Thanks, Chris. I feel better now.”

 

“No problem. I said what I did for me just as much for you.” Chris laughed. Just then Joey and Lance came back carrying two extra coffees in their hands. They handed one to Justin and Chris and kept one for themselves.

 

“Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!” Chris said.

 

“I’m regretting giving that to you,” Lance said to Chris.

 

“Aw, c’mon, Lance. This is my reward for giving Justin ‘the talk.’”

 

Joey looked at Justin in mock surprise. “I thought you already knew about sex.”

 

Justin was saved from answering and striking up an old joke when they heard JC’s bed sheets rustle. After a few seconds of moving JC’s eyes flew open and shot up to a sitting position.

 

Justin rushed forward to push JC back down. “Take it easy. You’ve had a rough night.”

 

“I’m in a hospital!”

 

“We know, JC. You put yourself here. Don’t touch that,” Chris said as he saw JC move to rip the IV out of his arm.

 

JC sighed in defeat as he crossed his arms. “But I have a needle in my arm!”

 

“That needle is replenishing your body with nutrients that you’ve deprived it of for the past month,” Lance explained.

 

JC sat up and made a move to protest, but was stopped by Joey. “You know you aren’t going to win this one, so you might as well give up.”

 

JC sighed and lay back down only to fly back to a sitting position. “The concert!”

 

“What about it?”

 

“What happened? We were halfway through the concert,” JC said.

 

“You passed out and were taken to the hospital,” Chris said and caught JC’s glare. “Oh, you mean what happened after you passed out. Well, Johnny came out on stage and made an announcement that you had become suddenly ill backstage and that the show would be partially refunded.”

 

“I can’t believe you guys did that.”

 

“You passed out, JC! What did you want us to do? Throw a party?!” Justin exclaimed.

 

JC looked over at Justin. “Sorry.”

 

“What happened, JC? What was so bad that you couldn’t come to us and had to make yourself sick over?”

 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” JC diverted his eyes from Justin.

 

Justin sighed in frustration and looked over at Chris. Chris stepped forward. “We know you don’t want to talk about it, but look where you are. You put yourself in a hospital, JC, a hospital.”

 

JC sighed as he realized Chris was right, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. Joey saw JC’s hesitation and spoke up, “You don’t need to tell us everything. Not right now anyway, but you need to at least tell us what the cause of this is.”

 

JC thought for a minute and weighed his possibilities. He knew that he couldn’t hold it in forever and that they had a right to know, but on the other hand he didn’t want to bring up what happened a month ago when they were over it.

 

“Does it have to do with your nightmares?” Justin asked even though he knew the answer to it. He figured it would be a good way to get the conversation started.

 

“Yeah,” JC admitted after a few seconds of silence.

 

“Do these nightmares have anything to do with what happened?” Chris asked.

 

JC paused even longer this time. “Yes.”

 

“What happens in them?” Justin pressed. He knew that if he pushed JC too much JC wouldn’t talk, but he was glad they were moving in the right direction.

 

JC shook his head. Lance knew that JC was done talking for now. It wasn’t much, but at least they were finally getting somewhere. “It’s OK, JC. You don’t have to say anything else for now. Just get some sleep. I’m sure you’re still feeling pretty weak.”

 

“I’m sorry,” JC apologized.

 

“Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re used to you sleeping,” Chris joked even though he knew JC wasn’t apologizing about sleeping.

 

JC just nodded as he lay back against his bed and let his breathing even out. It didn’t take long before he was fast asleep.

Lance sat in the uncomfortable chair that was placed next to JC’s bed. He was busy biting his nails. He could hear the TV on in the background. The others were flipping through channels trying to find something to watch other than infomercials. Every once in a while Lance would briefly stop biting his nails to look over at JC and make sure he was still sleeping.

 

It was almost 4 o’clock in the morning. Visiting hours had ended a long time ago, but they had convinced the doctor to let them stay with JC. The doctor had consented after seeing how freaked out JC was of being in the hospital. The only condition was that they had to keep the noise down for the other patients, which wasn’t a hard thing to do. There wasn’t much to do this early in the morning, and they were tired anyway.

 

Lance let his thoughts wander as he continued to bite his nails. He looked over at JC once more to make sure that he was still sleeping. Lance watched JC sleep for a few seconds before his attention snapped to the TV who said JC’s name.

 

“Our top story today:  JC Chasez Falls Ill At *NSYNC Concert. Halfway through the concert at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri JC was said to become ill backstage in between songs. We have no confirmation right now as to how sick he is or if the rest of their tour dates will be postponed. We’ll keep you updated. This was MTV news at 10 to the hour every hour.”

 

Joey turned off the TV, and turned to face the others. “So…everyone knows.”

 

“Not everyone,” Justin said. “It’s still too early. They’ll probably know by afternoon though.”

 

The room was silent for a minute or two before Chris asked, “What are we going to do about the tour?”

 

“We cancel it,” Justin said immediately. “Or at least postpone it. JC isn’t well enough to do the shows.”

 

“It’s really what Johnny decides though,” Lance said. “I can’t see him making us do the rest of the tour with JC the way he is.”

 

“When is he coming?” Joey asked.

 

Lance shrugged. “Sometime later today probably.”

 

Sheets rustling from the bed could be heard, and they all turned to see JC moving in his sleep. At first Lance and Justin thought that he might be having another nightmare, but he stopped moving and continued to sleep. Justin shook his head as he looked away from JC.

 

“We should’ve done something,” Justin said.

 

“Haven’t we been through this before, Justin?” Chris asked knowingly.

 

“Yeah,” Justin admitted, “but it doesn’t make me stop thinking that I could’ve prevented this.”

 

“I know it’s easy to place the blame on yourself. I could easily say that I’m to blame because I’m the oldest. I should’ve seen this coming or spotted the problem sooner. However, none of is to blame,” Chris replied.

 

“You’re wrong. I’m to blame,” Joey said. “It was my stupid charade that helped pushed him over the edge.”

 

Chris shook his head. “You’re not to blame, and you know it. None of this is our fault.”

 

“That’s not true!” Lance said as he stood up from the chair he had been sitting in. “It’s my fault!”

 

Lance really felt that this whole situation was his fault. It all started with him. He had been the one to suggest them going on vacation to the cabin over a year ago not knowing the consequences that would follow. Those events led to what happened about a month ago. Finally Lance pushed JC to his limit when he probed his mind without permission. He blamed himself for the condition JC was in, especially since he should’ve seen it coming considering they were close and read each other well. Or at least they had been able to.

 

All eyes were on Lance. “What makes you think it’s your fault? Do you think you know JC better than us?”

 

“Lance and JC are close.” Justin paused before adding, “They’re so close it’s almost as if they can read each other’s minds.” Justin looked over at Lance.

 

Lance felt his face pale. Justin knew? How could he possibly know? Lance knew that he would have to settle this now. “Can I speak to you out in another room, Justin?”

 

“What? You have something to say that you can’t say in front of us?” Joey asked.

 

“Something like that, yeah,” Lance said. “Justin?”

 

“Yeah, okay,” Justin agreed. He followed Lance into an empty room a couple doors down. Lance shut the door and turned to see Justin standing there looking smug.

 

“How do you know?” Lance asked.

 

“JC told me,” Justin said simply.

 

“What? Are you sure this is JC you’re talking about?”

 

“No, you’re right, Lance. I’m talking about his twin that is the exact opposite of him.” Justin rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m talking about JC.”

 

Justin paused for a second and added, “He doesn’t only talk to you, Lance. He talks to the rest of us too.”

 

“I know. I just didn’t think he would tell anyone. He was pretty adamant about you guys not finding out,” Lance said.

 

“I’m sure he was, but that was after he forgot that he already told me,” Justin said.

 

“When did he tell you?” Lance asked curious.

 

“It was the night we went out to find you guys. He called me up and told me to get ready to leave. It wasn’t until we were in the car driving that he told me about how you talked to him and he talked back. He must’ve forgotten in all the chaos of that night,” Justin explained.

 

Lance took a few minutes to let what Justin said sink in. He was taken back to that night over a month ago. He had been so shocked to hear JC responding to his cry for help. He was so grateful that he had though. He, Chris, and Joey would have died. Who knows what would’ve happened to Justin and JC.

 

Lance shook his head of thoughts of that night. “So when did you remember?” Lance paused for a minute before it hit him. “Yesterday when you and Chris were playing video games. That was it, wasn’t it?”

 

“Yeah,” Justin admitted. “Although I probably wouldn’t have figured it out this soon if I hadn’t been watching everyone so closely. I saw you two do the eyebrow thing, and I could recall seeing you do it other times. That’s when I realized it.”

 

“So what now?” Lance asked.

 

Justin looked at Lance quizzically. “What do you mean?”

 

“Well, you know, so do we tell Joey and Chris?” Lance clarified.

 

“It’s not my call. I told JC he should, but that was before all of this happened. I think right now the most important thing is helping him get better. You guys do need to tell them eventually though,” Justin said.

 

Lance nodded in agreement. It had never been his idea to keep a secret anyway. “What can we do to help JC?”

 

“Well, it’s not really so much what we can do, but what you can do.”

 

“Me?” Lance asked. “What can I do?”

 

“Isn’t it obvious? You can read his mind if he refuses to talk to us,” Justin explained.

 

Lance shook his head. “No, no way! JC was so mad at me last time I did that. That’s why we came up with the whole eyebrow thing.”

 

“Well, then he’ll talk to us to stop you from being in his mind,” Justin said.

 

“Do you want him to be mad at me?” Lance asked.

 

“No.” Justin shook his head. “I’m just trying to do what’s best for JC. He needs to talk about everything whether he wants to or not. It’s part of healing, and you can help him so much more than we can. We can only ask him if he wants to talk about it, but you can force him. I wish I could do more, but I can’t.”

 

“Are you jealous of me?”

 

“What are you talking about? Of course not,” Justin denied.

 

“It seems like it. You’re purposely trying to make me out as the bad guy,” Lance said.

 

“How am I doing that?” Justin asked.

 

“By telling me to give JC an ultimatum. You know JC’s not going to want to talk to us so you want me to just invade his privacy and read his thoughts. You know he’ll be pissed off at me if I do that,” Lance explained.

 

“That’s ridiculous. I’m trying to get JC the help he needs, and if that means forcing him to talk about his problems then so be it. I don’t know why you’re complaining about this so much. I would like to be able to help JC the way you can,” Justin said.

 

“Are you sure that you’re not jealous? I mean I’ve been spending more time with JC lately than you have…”

 

“I’m sure,” Justin said. “We should probably get back into the room. Joey and Chris are probably wondering what happened to us.”

 

“Justin, wait!” Lance said. Justin turned around to look at him. “You can help JC in a way that I can’t.”

 

“What are you talking about? No, I can’t,” Justin denied.

 

“Yes, you can. You can be there for him. He needs us to be there, but you especially. You two have so much history. I don’t have that with JC. You know that you’re the one he’s going to go to when he has a problem that he can’t talk to anyone else about.” Lance paused and thought back to the fight he and JC had about his nightmares. “Did he show up at your door two days ago?”

 

Justin thought for a minute before he remembered.

He had just gotten out of the shower when there was a knock on the door. He picked up a t-shirt on his way to answer the door. He had the shirt half on when he opened the door to find JC on the other side. 

“Hey,” Justin greeted as he pulled the rest of his shirt over his head. 

“Hey,” JC sighed. His eyes were downcast as he walked into Justin’s room. 

Justin noticed this and thought it had to do with what he had said earlier. “Look, JC, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to push you. You can talk when you’re ready.” 

“Don’t worry about it, J,” JC said. Justin’s eyes widened in surprise. Sure JC was a forgiving person, but he had been so pissed off before. It made Justin wonder if something happened. 

“Are you okay, JC?” Justin asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” 

“You just seem out of it,” Justin said. 

“I’m just tired,” JC said with a half smile. Justin knew that lack of sleep wasn’t the reason JC was so down, but he was going to let JC tell him when he was ready. 

“Well, you can get some sleep after the concert. Speaking of which, we need to hit it,” Justin said. JC nodded and together they left for the van that would take them to the arena. 

“Yeah, yeah he did. He seemed kind of upset, but he didn’t tell me why.”

 

“That was the day I read his mind without permission. We had this huge fight, and he left,” Lance said and saw Justin open his mouth to speak, but he continued on. “He might not have told you what his problem was, but he did have one and you were the one he went to because he knew you wouldn’t push right away. Not to mention you can’t read how he’s feeling like I can so he probably feels less threatened talking to you. That says something, Justin. He wouldn’t have done that if you two weren’t so close.”

 

“Thanks, Lance.” Justin said after a few minutes.

 

“Anytime.”

 

Justin left the room and Lance followed. Lance still thought that Justin might be jealous, but decided to forget about it for now. Maybe Justin really wasn’t jealous, and he was just imaging it. Lance and Justin entered JC’s room to find Joey and Chris dozing off in a pair of chairs. They were going to sit down when JC’s bed sheets started rustling again. This time his movement didn’t stop after a few seconds.

 

JC began thrashing about, and he screamed “No!” Chris and Joey were up in an instant. Chris was the closest so he reached out to shake JC to wake him up. It took a minute or two, but it did work. When JC woke up he had tears rolling down his face.

 

“What’s wrong, JC?” Justin asked as he moved close to JC’s bed. JC shook his head.

 

Joey placed a hand on JC’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

 

JC nodded as he wiped the tears from his face. “Fine,” he whispered.

 

“You don’t look ‘fine,’” Chris observed.

 

“Well, I am,” JC said.

 

Justin fixed JC with a glare, and JC sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

 

“How do you expect to get better if you never talk about it?” Justin asked. “If you actually talked about it, your nightmares might go away.”

 

“What if they don’t? What if they get worse?” JC asked.

 

Justin was about to answer when Lance cut him off. Justin looked more than a little put off, but Lance didn’t notice. “They won’t. Remember when you helped me with my nightmares over a year ago?” Lance waited for JC to nod before continuing. “I didn’t have any more after we talked.”

 

JC appreciated Lance not saying anything about his nightmares since he knew what they were about. He was glad that Lance was giving him the choice to tell the others.

 The room was quiet for a minute or two while JC thought Lance’s words over. Finally he tiredly said, “Not now.” 

“Get some rest, buddy,” Chris told JC as he watched his eyes grow heavy again. It was a combination of the medication he was on and the sleep his body needed to catch up on.

 

It didn’t take long for JC to fall back asleep. They all breathed a sigh of relief. They were glad that JC was finally thinking about opening up to them. The sooner they could get to the root of his problem, the sooner he could get better.

 

They all pulled up a seat and tried to get as comfortable as they could. They had stayed up all night, and they were really feeling it now. They were just about to fall asleep when Johnny walked through the door.

 

“Hey, guys.”

 

“Hi, Johnny,” they chorused as they forced themselves to sit up in their chairs. They knew they were going to have to listen to Johnny before they could get some sleep.

 

“I just talked to JC’s doctor,” Johnny said not bothering to waste any time. He knew that they had all probably stayed up through the night to keep an eye on JC, so he was going to try to make it quick so they could get some sleep.

 

“And?” Justin prompted.

 

“And he can go home today,” Johnny said.

 

“Seriously?” Chris asked. When Johnny nodded he asked, “Why?”

 

“Well, ultimately he’s fine physically. Doctor Peterson has expressed his concerns to JC’s mental health, but that’s nothing that we can’t fix after the tour,” Johnny explained.

 

“Wait a minute!” Joey commanded. “After the tour?”

 

“You guys only have four shows left of the tour. I really think it would be a good idea to just go ahead and finish them off. I mean, you guys are going to have a bunch of time off afterwards that you can use to get JC the help he needs,” Johnny said.

 

“JC needs help now, not after the tour,” Joey objected. “There’s no way we’re doing those last four shows until he’s feeling better.”

 

“You guys owe it to your fans. You know JC would want to do the last four shows,” Johnny said trying to convince them to finish the tour.

 

“It doesn’t matter what JC wants. Look at where what he wanted got him!” Joey motioned to the bed. “We are not finishing the tour with JC like this. Period.”

 

Johnny was becoming annoyed. “Okay, we know what your opinion is, Joey. What about everyone else?”

 

“We agree with Joey. We don’t want to finish the tour until JC is better,” Justin spoke up.

 

“Look guys, I’m your manager, and I’m saying you guys are going to finish up the tour. I’m supposed to know what’s best for your career,” Johnny said.

 

“To hell with our career!” Joey exclaimed before realizing how loud his voice had become. He glanced over at JC’s bed to make sure he didn’t wake him. He didn’t, but Joey lowered his voice anyway. “I know you’re trying to do your job, but so are we. Once JC is better we’ll finish the tour. End of story.”

 

“I’m sorry, guys, but there’s no way that we’re postponing the tour,” Johnny said.

 

“What?!” they all exclaimed.

 

“You can’t do that!” Chris objected.

 

“The doctor says that JC is fine physically and can finish the tour. That’s what you’re going to do. It’s only going to be one more week. There are only four shows left.” Johnny saw the glares that he was getting and sighed. “Look I know where you’re coming from, but I’m not budging on this. If JC made it a month before…well, he can make it through a week.

 

“I’ve already checked him out, so you guys can head back to the hotel. Get some sleep. We’ll be leaving late afternoon.” Johnny left the room. The guys looked at each other in disbelief. They never saw that coming. They had thought for sure that he would side with them.

 

Once Johnny left, Doctor Peterson entered. He quickly removed the needle from JC’s arm before bandaging it. JC had woken up just as the doctor pulled the needle out.

 

“You’re free to go,” Doctor Peterson whispered to a bleary-eyed JC. It was 6 o’clock in the morning. Normally patients weren’t discharged this early, but Johnny had talked to the doctor about how it would be better if JC left early to avoid press and fans.

 

Justin helped JC to get dressed and helped him to walk out to the SUV that was waiting just outside the main entrance of the hospital. The other three piled in behind them. It wasn’t a long ride to the hotel.

 

JC was asleep by the time they reached the hotel. Justin and Chris helped carry JC up to their floor. They entered through the back entrance incase there were any fans lingering around trying to get the scoop on what was wrong with JC.

 

They managed to get JC to his room without any problems. Justin and Chris gently placed him on the queen size bed. Joey and Lance had followed them in to make sure that JC was comfortable.

 

“Someone should probably stay with him in case he wakes up or has another nightmare,” Justin suggested.

 

“I’ll do it,” Lance volunteered.

 

“Okay,” Justin nodded. “Someone should probably relieve you after a few hours.”

 

“I will,” Joey said.

 

“Good night. I’ll see you girls later,” Chris said before leaving the room. They exchanged good nights before Justin and Joey headed to their own rooms. Joey got to his room and sighed in relief. He was glad to be away from the hospital.

 

What a night it had been! First JC collapsed onstage. Then Johnny had to come in and try to tell them what was best for JC. He had only heard from the doctor how he was. Who was he to make the decision that JC was well enough to perform the last four shows?

 

Joey looked at the mini bar longingly. He really wanted to go out and get a drink, but he had promised Kelly he wouldn’t. He intended to keep that promise too. Then again…he promised not to go out, but he didn’t promise to stop drinking. Besides there was no one around for him to harm, so Joey helped himself to the mini bar.

 

At first he was going to have just a couple to forget about all that had happened in the past 24 hours. After all the drinking had been helping him forget about what he went through on that night, even if it only worked for one night. He couldn’t seem to stop thinking about everything that had happened, which made him drink more.

 

Joey felt it was his fault that JC ended up in the hospital. What he said in the hospital was true. He felt that his picture in the tabloid was what pushed JC over the edge. That led to him replaying the fight with Johnny in his mind, which just made him angrier the more he thought about it. He couldn’t believe that Johnny had ignored what they were telling him. It wasn’t the first time Johnny went over their heads, but this was the first time it was about something this major. The more Joey thought about everything that was bothering him, the more he drank.

 

Dawn came and with it brought an empty mini bar and Joey passed out on the couch.

Lance lay on the spare bed in JC’s hotel room and watched the TV flicker. The sound was on low so as to not wake JC. He had tried to fall asleep, but had only managed to dose off for a couple of hours. He wondered what had happened to Joey since he was supposed to have relieved him by now, but then he figured that Joey must’ve fallen asleep.

 

Lance looked over at JC and was glad to see that he was still sleeping peacefully. He hadn’t had any nightmares since they had put him in bed earlier. He was about to look away when JC shot up in his bed. Too bad it didn’t last. He had actually been getting some much needed sleep, Lance thought.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lance asked, knowing that JC just had another nightmare.

 

JC sighed. “What do you think?”

 

“Is that a no?” Lance sighed when JC gave him a ‘duh’ look. “You’re going to have to talk about your nightmares to the guys eventually though.”

 

“Why?” JC asked.

 

“Because they’re your friends. They deserve to know what’s bothering you,” Lance said.

 

JC averted his eyes to his fingers that were busy picking at the bed’s comforter. “But you know. I don’t understand why I have to tell them when you know.”

 

“You never actually told me, JC,” Lance reminded. “It’s like I told you in the hospital. Talking about it helps make the nightmares stop.”

 

JC sighed. “Fine, but not now.”

 

“OK, but if you don’t tell them soon I will,” Lance said. He knew that JC was still hesitant about talking about his nightmares and would try to avoid it as long as possible. Lance was hoping that he would tell the guys on his own. He didn’t want to have to force him to talk.

 

JC looked at Lance in surprise. “Where did that come from?”

 

“I’ve just been thinking the sooner you talk about your nightmares the sooner they’ll get better,” Lance said remembering the conversation he had with Justin at the hospital. Justin had said that JC was going to have to be pressured into talking because otherwise he wouldn’t do it on his own. Lance was trying to give JC a push into talking to the others without pissing him off like he did before.

 

“All right. I get it. I’ll talk about it when I’m ready,” JC said.

 

“Good,” Lance replied.

 

Silence once again fell between the two. JC still sat in bed picking away at his comforter. “What are we doing today?”

 

Lance looked over at JC. “Well, we’ll be on the road in,” Lance paused to look at his watch, “three hours.”

 

“We’re continuing with the tour?” JC asked.

 

“Yeah,” Lance admitted grudgingly.

 

“What’s the matter?” JC asked. When Lance didn’t answer it dawned on him. “You don’t think I can do it, do you?”

 

Lance hesitated. He knew that if he agreed with JC he would only succeed in pissing him off. However, Lance knew that he couldn’t lie to JC. He had never been very good at it. “Well, it’s not that I don’t think you can do it. I just think it’s too soon.”

 

Lance watched as JC threw back his covers and stood up. “Look at me. I’m standing. I’m fine.”

 

JC began to walk around the room. “I’m walking, and I’m still fine.” JC then started to jump up and down. “Now I’m jumping, and I’m completely fine.”

 

“Really? Because I think you’re a little crazy now,” Lance said.

 

JC tried to hold back his laughter, but he couldn’t. He burst out laughing. Before Lance knew it he was laughing with him. About a minute later they managed to get control over themselves.

 

“I’m going to take a shower,” JC said. He wasn’t going to give Lance a chance to continue the conversation. He was glad he cared, but he didn’t want him and the others to treat him like he was made of glass.

 

“Afterwards, you should go spend some time with Justin,” Lance suggested.

 

“Why?” JC asked.

 

“Because he’s your friend, and it’s been a while since you two have done something together,” Lance said.

 

“Why him? Why not Joey or Chris then? I haven’t spent a lot of time with them lately either,” JC said.

 

Lance hesitated briefly before saying, “Because I think Justin’s jealous of me.”

 

JC stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

 

“Think about it, JC. We’ve been spending a lot of time together. I think Justin doesn’t feel like he’s as close to you anymore, especially since he knows that I’m connected to you in a way that he isn’t.”

 

“You know that Justin knows?” JC asked.

 

“Yeah. He told me earlier while you were in the hospital. I was kind of shocked that he knew,” Lance explained.

 

“I was going to tell you, but everything seemed to happen at once. I didn’t get the chance,” JC said.

 

“I figured as much, but let’s get back on track. You need to spend time with Justin,” Lance said.

 

“Right. You really think he’s jealous of you?” JC asked.

 

“Well, he said no when I asked him, but it’s easy to see that he misses hanging out with you.”

 

JC thought about what Lance had said for a few minutes before he nodded. “You’re right. I’ll go meet up with him after my shower.”

 

Lance was about to tell JC to enjoy when Justin came walking in the door. He looked surprised to see Lance. “What are you doing here?”

 

Lance looked at Justin as if he just asked the dumbest question ever. “I was keeping an eye on JC.”

 

“Where’s Joey? Joey was supposed to relieve you,” Justin said.

 

“I don’t know.” Lance shrugged. “He never showed up.”

 

“We should go look for him,” Justin said.

 

“Why? He probably just fell asleep,” JC said, his shower temporarily forgotten.

 

“Well then, we should go wake him up. We only have a couple hours left before we leave,” Justin said. He was worried about Joey because it wasn’t like him to forget to do something important like this. While he had been acting differently lately, he had still done everything that he was told. Justin just couldn’t figure out what would cause Joey to not follow through with a responsibility he volunteered for.

 

“Why is it so important that you go wake him up?” JC asked.

 

“I want to know why he didn’t come relieve Lance like he said he would,” Justin answered. “Now Lance didn’t get any sleep last night.”

 

“I got a couple of hours,” Lance objected.

 

Justin rolled his eyes. “Like that’s good enough.”

 

“I don’t know why you had to have someone watch over me anyway. It’s not like I was going to go anywhere,” JC said.

 

“That’s not the point. Joey was supposed to relieve Lance. He didn’t, and I want to know why,” Justin said. “And I can’t wait.”

 

Justin left the room. Lance and JC had no choice but to follow if they wanted to find out what happened. Their curiosity was piqued. The three of them let themselves into Joey’s room with the spare room key.

 

At first they didn’t see anything, but the smell of alcohol hit them as soon as they walked across the threshold. They couldn’t see Joey until they walked further into the room where they saw him laying face down on the couch.

 

“What the hell happened in here?” Justin asked.

 

“Isn’t it obvious? He got himself trashed,” JC said.

 

“Shouldn’t we wait to see what his story is before jumping to conclusions?” Lance asked.

 

JC turned to look at him. “What other explanation is there? Someone forced him to drink the entire mini bar?”

 

Justin jumped in before Lance could reply. “Why don’t we just wake him up? Then we can find out what happened.”

 

“We already know what happened,” JC mumbled and Justin glared at him.

 

“Shut up, JC.” Justin walked over to the couch where he leaned over to shake Joey awake. It took a few minutes before Joey groaned and rolled over, grabbing a pillow to put over his head as he did so.

 

“C’mon, Joey, you need to wake up,” Lance said. He had moved closer to the couch when Justin had tried waking him up. JC, however, was standing back watching the scene play out with his arms crossed.

 

“No,” Joey mumbled into the scratchy surface of the couch.

 

“Yes. Joey, man, we have to leave in two and a half hours. You need to get ready,” Justin said.

 

Joey groaned, but he slowly began to push himself into a sitting position. “Fine,” he grumbled.

 

“What the hell were you thinking?” JC asked not being able to wait for the answer anymore.

 

“Can you lower your voice? I have a killer headache,” Joey complained as he grabbed his head.

 

“Gee, I wonder why,” JC said sarcastically.

 

“So I drink a little. Big deal. It helps me unwind,” Joey said.

 

“It puts your health in jeopardy,” JC replied.

 

“Who was it that collapsed on stage?” Joey shot back.

 

JC turned a couple shades of red. “You have a problem!”

 

“Look who’s talking,” Joey said.

 

“Guys, enough!” Justin yelled as he stepped in between Joey and JC. “You both have a problem. Accept it and move on.”

 

Silence fell among the group and Justin spoke up when he realized that they weren’t going to say anything else. “Joey, go take some aspirin and get a shower.”

 

“Fine,” Joey mumbled as he walked into the bathroom. Justin waited for the door to close before he turned to JC.

 

“And you shouldn’t be getting all worked up. You just got out of the hospital a few hours ago,” Justin said.

 “I’m fine!” JC yelled. “I don’t need you guys breathing down my neck. I can finish the tour,” he said looking over at Lance before he looked over at Justin, “I’m better. We need to focus on Joey’s problem now.” 

“But you’re not better, JC. And I don’t know what to do anymore,” Justin said.

 

Justin sent a hurt look JC’s way before he left Joey’s room, letting the door shut behind him. As soon as he was gone Lance faced JC. “Nice, JC. After what we just talked about, you go and treat him like crap.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” JC said as he ran a hand through his hair. He looked down at the floor. “I just don’t want you guys treating me like I’m weak because I’m not.”

 

“You should’ve told him in a nicer way,” Lance said.

 

“You’re right,” JC said. “I’ll go talk to him.”

 

“I’ll clean up in here and make sure Joey isn’t too hung over by the time we leave,” Lance said.

 

JC nodded. “I’ll see you later.”

 

JC left Lance in Joey’s room. He walked out into the hall and stopped for a minute to think where Justin could be. He briefly thought that Justin might be in his room, but then he remembered seeing a basketball court behind the hotel and knew that was where Justin would be.

 

He took the stairs since he didn’t want to wait for the elevator. He ducked through the lobby quickly before he found himself outside by the pool. He walked past the pool to the basketball court. Sure enough, Justin was there dribbling a basketball.

 

“Hey,” JC said as he approached.

 

Justin looked up briefly, but he didn’t stop dribbling. “Hey.”

 

The silence stretched between the two of them for a few minutes before JC finally took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry.”

 

“Are you really?” Justin asked as he stopped dribbling and looked up at JC.

 

“Yeah, I was a real jerk back there,” JC said. “I know you said what you did because you care.”

 

“I do,” Justin said. “I don’t want something like that to happen to you again. You scared the hell out of me, JC.”

 

“I’m sorry,” JC apologized again.

 

Justin sighed as he ran a hand over his face. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t talk to any of us. You should’ve told us that you were still having problems with what happened.”

 

“You’re right. I should have, but…” JC paused for a minute before he continued. “I didn’t want to bring it up. I thought you guys were over it and I didn’t want to dig it up again.”

 

Justin walked over and put a hand on JC’s shoulder. “You could’ve talked to any of us about it.” Justin thought for a minute before he said, “Maybe we should talk about it now.”

 

“Now?” JC asked in surprise.

 

“Yeah,” Justin said as he nodded. “We don’t have to leave for a couple of hours. We can talk about it right here, right now.”

 

JC hesitated for a minute before he said, “I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”

 

“I’m sick of you dodging this conversation. Anytime one of us wants to talk about it you freak. I just don’t know what to do anymore,” Justin said.

 

“Justin—“ JC started, but Justin cut him off.

 

“Forget it, JC. I don’t understand why you won’t talk to me. I must’ve done—“ Justin cut himself off as he realized he was revealing too much. “If you don’t want to talk about it, fine. I’ll stop bugging you. Do what you want.”

 

Justin turned around and resumed dribbling the basketball. JC turned around to leave. He thought that he was finally getting what he wanted. Justin had said that he’d stop bugging him, but JC knew that Justin really cared. That was why he was trying to get him to talk. He was only trying to help JC.

 

JC sighed as he turned around. He thought for a second before he blurted, “I have dreams that you die.”

“What?” Justin asked as he looked up in surprise and stopped dribbling the basketball.

 

“You heard me,” JC said.

 

“Yeah.” Justin nodded. “So are we talking about this now?”

 

JC shrugged as he stepped closer. “I guess. You keep saying I need to talk about it so…”

 

Justin half smiled. He sat Indian style on the basketball court with the ball placed in front of him. “Pull up a seat,” he said, patting the asphalt.

 

JC let out a short laugh as he sat down across from Justin, mirroring his position. Justin let the silence drag on for a minute. He knew that JC was trying to collect his thoughts. He was glad that JC had decided to talk to him.

 

Finally Justin said, “So I die in your dreams?”

 

“Yeah,” JC said softly as he looked down at the asphalt. He paused for a minute before he added, “But it’s not just you.”

 

“Who else?” Justin asked, leaning forward a little. JC was finally going to divulge the details of his nightmares.

 

JC gave Justin a ‘duh’ look. Justin realized what he meant. “Lance, Chris, and Joey,” he said sadly.

 

A few seconds passed. “So we all die in your dream?”

 

“Yeah.” JC nodded as he looked back down at the asphalt. After a few minutes of silence JC looked up to see Justin patiently sitting there. Justin knew that this was going to be hard for JC and that it would be best to just let him get it all out.

 

“It’s so similar to what happened. I’m in the forest. Me and you were there to help the guys only…only it didn’t happen that way.” JC took a deep breath before continuing on. “I saw…I saw…”

 

JC’s voice dropped off, and he returned his eyes to the ground. It took him a minute to get a hold of himself again. “I saw the demons kill Lance…then Joey…then Chris…and then…you. And I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I was forced to watch you guys die.”

 

JC’s eyes filled with tears. He hastily reached up to rub them away. He didn’t want Justin to see him cry. He managed to pull himself together and continue. “I was all alone. And…the last thing I see before I wake up is this tree with a weird symbol carved into it.”

 

“What does it look like?” Justin asked.

 

“It’s this star with a circle around it,” JC said. “It’s just so weird. I mean, why is this the last thing I see?”

 

JC paused to look at Justin. “Do you know how horrible it was to have to see something like that and not be able to do anything? I tried, you know. I struggled, but it was like I was glued to that spot. And they didn’t even touch me. It was like…it was like they somehow knew that hurting you guys would kill me.”

 

Justin waited a few minutes to see if JC had anything else to say. While he waited he took in everything that JC had just told him. JC didn’t speak at all during those few minutes, so Justin figured that he was done telling him about his dream.

 

“And you had this…nightmare a lot?” Justin asked quietly.

 

JC nodded. “Every night.”

 

Justin got up from where he was sitting. He pulled JC off the ground and put his arms around him. JC hugged him back. “I’m sorry,” Justin said.

 

“Thanks,” JC whispered when they pulled away.

 

“You’re welcome.” Justin paused for a minute before he said, “You know that would never happen, right?”

 

“You don’t know that. It could happen,” JC protested.

 

“I guess, but it’s not very likely,” Justin said.

 

“But they were nearly successful before. Maybe next time they actually will be.”

 

Justin looked at JC with a raised eyebrow. “Next time? JC, there won’t be a next time. You heard what Katrina said. They’re stuck in hell now.”

 

“What’s to stop other demons from coming after us?” JC asked.

 

“Why would they come after us? We haven’t done anything worthy of demon…I don’t know,” Justin said.

 

“But we didn’t do anything before,” JC pointed out.

 

“Well, I don’t know, JC,” Justin said. “We were probably just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It couldn’t have been because of anything we’ve done.”

 

JC sighed in defeat. “Yeah, I guess.”

 

Almost a minute passed in silence before Justin broke out in a grin.

 

“What’re you smiling about?” JC asked.

 

“You did it,” Justin said. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”

 

“I guess not,” JC mumbled as he looked down at the ground.

 

“If you talked about it sooner you could’ve saved yourself from spending a night in a hospital,” Justin said. He paused for a minute before continuing, “I wish I could see what is going happen. Then I could’ve stopped you from ending up in the hospital.”

 

“It wasn’t your fault, J,” JC replied.

 

“I still wish I could see what’s going to happen,” Justin said.

 

JC paused before he said, “If it makes you feel any better, I wish you could too.”

 

Justin half smiled and looked down at his watch. “I guess we should head back in. I don’t know about you, but I still have some packing to do. And I need a shower. I stink.”

 

“Me too,” JC agreed.

 

Justin laughed and slung an arm around JC’s shoulders. “We’re just a bunch of stinky dudes.”

 

Together they entered the hotel and took the elevator up to their floor. Once they reached their floor they headed for their own rooms.

   

Chris woke up and looked at the clock. He had about two and a half hours before they had to hit the road. He stretched as he got out of bed. He was a little surprised he had slept as long as he did. He felt good, but knew that he would feel better once he got a shower.

 

He stepped out of the shower a half hour later and got dressed. He threw his dirty clothes and toiletries in his bag so he wouldn’t have to worry about packing later. He stepped out into the hall to see what the rest of the guys were up to. He stood in the hall for a few minutes wondering where everyone would be. The hall was quiet, which gave him no indication of who was awake and who wasn’t.

 

Chris thought for a minute and decided to go to Joey’s room. He had come to the conclusion that if anyone would be up, it would be him. He assumed JC and Lance were still sleeping. As far as Justin went, Chris figured he would be keeping an eye on JC by now. That only left Joey.

 

He walked over to Joey’s room and knocked on the door. He stood there for a few minutes before the door opened to reveal Lance, not Joey.

 

“Dude, what are you doing in Joey’s room?” Chris asked as he walked into the room.

 

“Cleaning,” Lance answered. He was still picking up the little bottles of alcohol that were scattered all over the room.

 

“Why? What happened?” Chris asked. Lance gestured for Chris to help him, so he walked around the room picking up the empty bottles and throwing them in the trash can.

 

“Joey got smashed last night,” Lance said.

 

“He had a party? And he didn’t invite me?” Chris joked.

 

Lance glared at Chris. “This is serious, Chris. He drank the entire mini bar by himself.”

 

“Wow,” Chris said. “I guess this is more serious than we thought.”

 

“Yeah, he’s got a problem. I don’t think he realizes it though,” Lance said.

 

“What makes you say that?” Chris asked.

 

“Think about it, Chris. He’s said that he drinks a little, but really it’s more than that. He was always out partying every night until Kelly made him promise not to go out anymore. And what does he do? He empties the mini bar in one night,” Lance explained.

 

Chris nodded. “I see what you’re saying. So what do we do about it?”

 

“We keep an eye on him. Make sure that he doesn’t drink,” Lance said.

 

“Do you really think that’ll work?”

 

“If we watch him, it will,” Lance said.

 

“Won’t he be pissed that we’re babysitting him?” Chris asked.

 

Lance shrugged. “Probably, but he’s obviously not thinking clearly if he feels he needs to drink every night.”

 

“So how are we going to watch over him?” Chris asked.

 

“Well, someone can room with him,” Lance suggested looking pointedly at Chris.

 

“Me?” Chris asked. “Why me?”

 

“Because you have a point. Joey will probably get very pissy, and you’re better at handling that than I am,” Lance said.

 

Chris sighed. “Oh, all right. I’ll do it. Is there anything else that goes with this plan you have?”

 

“That’s the main part. We just need to watch over him until we’re sure he can drink responsibly again,” Lance said.

 

Finally they had finished cleaning the room and had just sat down on the couch when Joey walked into the room freshly showered and dressed. He sat down next to Chris and grabbed the remote from the coffee table to turn on the TV. He had the volume on low so as to not agitate his headache.

 

“Do you feel better?” Lance asked.

 

“Yeah. I think the aspirin’s helping,” Joey said.

 

“That’s good,” Lance said. “I’m going to order room service. Are you hungry?”

 

Joey nodded. “A little.”

 

“Well, I am!” Chris said.

 

Lance rolled his eyes as reached over to grab the phone and had room service ordered within five minutes. He settled back against the couch to wait for it to arrive.

 

“Hey,” Chris said, breaking the temporary silence that had fallen between the three of them. “Should we go see if Justin and JC want to eat with us?”

“No, I think they’re busy,” Lance said.

 

“Busy doing what?” Joey asked.

 

Lance shrugged. “They’re probably talking.”

 

“About what?” Chris asked.

 

“They had a little disagreement. It’s no big deal,” Lance answered.

 

“Geez. I sleep in and miss everything,” Chris replied.

 

Just then there was a sharp knock on the door. Lance got up from the couch and opened the door to allow the young man roll the cart into the room. He paid him and closed the door behind him.

 

“Lunch is served,” Lance said.

 

“Don’t you mean breakfast?” Chris asked.

 

“No, lunch,” Lance said. “It’s lunch time. Just because you woke up doesn’t change what time it is.”

 

Chris waved him off. “Whatever. Find something good, Joey?”

 

“Yeah,” Joey said as he took his plate back to the couch.

 

Chris and Lance helped themselves, and a half hour later everyone was finished eating. “I guess we should go see if Justin and JC are ready to go. The sooner we get on the road the better,” Lance said.

 

Joey grabbed his bag and set it outside his door in the hallway. Chris and Lance were going to go to their rooms to get their bags to do the same when Justin came walking out of his room with JC coming out of his a few seconds later. They were both freshly showered and carrying their bags.

 

“We were coming to see if you guys were ready to leave,” Lance said.

 

“We are if you guys are,” JC replied.

 

“You guys cool?” Chris asked.

 

JC looked confused that Chris knew, but figured that Lance must’ve filled him in. He looked at Justin and Justin answered, “Yeah, we’re good.”

 

“Well, I need to go get my bags,” Lance said.

 

“Me too,” Chris said.

 

The two of them entered their rooms. Justin turned to JC and Joey. “I’m going to go head down to the bus. I’ll see you two down there.”

 

Joey was about to follow when JC put a hand on his shoulder. “Joey?”

 

“Yeah?” Joey grumbled, not forgetting the little fight they had earlier.

 

“I’m sorry about earlier,” JC apologized.

 

Joey sighed. “I’m sorry too.” He rubbed his head.

 

“Is your headache bad?” JC asked, as they started to walk down to the bus. By this time Lance and Chris had come out of their rooms and were following them with their bags slung over their shoulders.

 

“No, it was worse earlier. I think the aspirin helped,” Joey said.

 

They reached the bus and immediately climbed on to see Justin already sitting on the couch watching TV. They walked to the back of the bus where they dropped their bags and returned to the front of the bus to watch some TV with Justin.

 

In less than five minutes the bus was on its way to the next city. The five of them watched Star Wars. For the first time in a month JC hung out with the guys without writing in his notebook. Halfway through the movie Lance moved to the booth where he worked on his laptop. About an hour later the movie ended.

 

Lance looked up from his work. He knew that now would be a good time to bring up sleeping arrangements since he would have their attention with the movie being over. “Hey guys, we should talk about sleeping arrangements.”

 

“What about them?” JC asked.

 

“I think no one should sleep alone,” Lance said.

 

“Why?” Joey asked.

 

Lance shrugged. “I think it would be a good idea considering everything that’s happened.”

 

“JC and I will room with each other,” Justin said.

 

“I’ll room with you two,” Lance said.

 

Chris slung an arm around Joey. “I guess that leaves me and you, Joe. We’ll have more fun than those losers.”

 

Joey laughed as Justin let out an indignant “Hey!”

 

“I’m fun. Unlike the two serious ones over here,” Justin said as he pointed over his shoulder.

 

“Then prove it,” Chris said as he held up a controller. Justin joined Chris and Joey on the floor to play Mortal Kombat. JC sat on the couch watching them battle it out on Playstation. Lance shook his head and went back to work. It didn’t take more than an hour or two for them to reach the next city.

 

They had arrived just in time for sound check. It was nonstop as soon as they got off the bus. There was more press than usual at the venue to report on how JC was and the show they would be performing that night. The concert went well considering that JC had been in the hospital the previous evening.

 

The five of them climbed back onto the bus to head to the next city exhausted. While most of them had gotten a decent amount of sleep, it had still been a long day. They all turned in early.

 

It took Justin a little longer than usual to fall asleep. He ran the conversation he had with JC earlier that day through his head again. He was so glad that JC had finally confided in him. However, once he had heard what JC had been dreaming about it was no wonder he had wanted to keep it to himself. To hear that someone saw you die, even if it was in a dream, was very weird.

 

Finally he fell asleep, and for the first time in a long time he dreamed. He dreamt that he was wandering through a forest. He thought that it looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t seem to place it. There was nothing around but trees, which was odd. Normally a forest had a bunch of animals living in it. It looked like there was no life at all in this forest. It was so quiet. The only thing that could be heard was Justin’s footsteps.

 

Just as Justin thought he was approaching something, he was being shaken awake. The dream vanished as he started to come back to consciousness.

 

“C’mon, J, we’re at the hotel,” a voice that Justin recognized to be Chris’s floated to his ears.

 

“Mmmkay,” Justin mumbled as he tried to stretch his long limbs in his bunk. As he crawled out of bed, he vaguely remembered the dream, or piece of a dream, he had last night. He couldn’t help but be a little confused. Why was he dreaming about a forest, especially since he hadn’t had a dream in years?

 

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for the time being. Right now he had to focus on getting up and getting ready to start another day. He could analyze his dream when he had more time.

It was the morning of their last concert. The other two concerts had gone well. It almost passed by in a blur because they were trying to keep on schedule. Joey was starting to look a little better. Lance and Chris had kept to their plan. Chris roomed with Joey to make sure that he didn’t try to drink at all.

 

They didn’t bother to go out to clubs anymore. Instead they would order a pizza and watch movies. Joey was a little crabby at first. He wanted to get a drink and was frustrated when they wouldn’t let him. Even though he wanted to drink, he was already beginning to look better because he was sleeping more and letting his body recover from all the alcohol he consumed. Lance and Chris knew they weren’t out of the woods yet with Joey, but they knew they were getting somewhere.

 

Lance was hanging out in the living room of the two bedroom suite they were staying in. He was watching TV with Joey and Chris when JC came walking out of the bedroom.

 

Chris looked up as JC grabbed a water bottle out of the mini fridge. “Sleep well?”

 

“Actually, yeah, I did,” JC said before he took a drink.

 

Lance gave JC a knowing look. “See? I told you you wouldn’t have any more nightmares once you talked about them.”

 

“You talked about them?” Joey asked.

 

“Yeah,” JC said.

 

“To who? Lance?” Chris asked.

 

“No.” JC shook his head. “Justin.”

 

“Why weren’t we invited?” Chris asked.

 

JC sighed. “Because Justin was there at the right time.”

 

Joey looked over at JC. “Do we get to know about them?”

 

“Not right now,” JC said as he shook his head. Joey and Chris went to protest, but JC added, “It was hard enough telling Justin. Maybe I’ll tell you guys one day, but not now. Besides, I haven’t had a nightmare since I talked to Justin.”

 

“Really?” Joey questioned. When JC nodded, Joey sighed. “All right. You don’t have to talk about it. Not now anyway.”

 

“Speaking of him, where is he?” Chris asked.

 

Lance gave Chris a confused look. “Who? JC?”

 

“Yes, Lance. I’m staring at JC right now, but I have no idea where he is.” Chris rolled his eyes. “I was talking about Justin.”

 

“Oh,” Lance said. He turned to JC. “Was he still sleeping when you woke up?”

 

“Yeah. He was out like a light,” JC said.

 

“He’s been sleeping in a lot lately,” Joey said.

 

Lance shrugged. “He’s probably just been tired.”

 

“Maybe we should wake him up,” Joey suggested.

 

“I’ll do it,” Chris volunteered.

  

Justin was in the middle of a dream. His dream had gotten longer over the past couple days. He still had the dream about the forest, but each night he slept he saw something he hadn’t seen before. He was in the forest and saw Lance dead. He then saw something he hadn’t seen earlier. He looked to his left to see Joey and Chris lying on the ground dead.

 

He was so disturbed by what he had seen. He wanted to figure out what was going on, but before he could even start he felt his whole body shake.

 

“C’mon, Justy! Wakey wakey!”

 

His body shook again and Justin realized, as the dream started to fade from his mind, that Chris was jumping on his bed. “Quit it,” he mumbled as he kicked at Chris.

 

Chris didn’t stop though. He kept on bouncing the bed. Finally Justin sat up and glared at Chris. “Who the hell gave you sugar this early?”

 

“It’s not that early, dude. Besides, I don’t need someone to monitor my sugar,” Chris said.

 

“Yeah, right,” Justin said. “Now, get out so I can get changed.”

 

“Good morning to you too,” Chris said, but he left the room whistling. He always had fun waking up Justin, especially since he was so grumpy when he first woke up.

 

Justin came out into the living room ten minutes later to find a service cart and Joey and Chris helping themselves to it. He walked over to the cart and poured a bowl of Apple Jacks. JC and Lance then grabbed themselves some breakfast. The five of them sat in front of the TV, eating a quiet breakfast.

 

They were just finishing up when JC said, “Can you believe tonight’s the last night of the tour?”

 

“It’s about time,” Justin said. “It feels like this tour has lasted forever.”

 

“We should go out after the concert tonight to celebrate,” Joey suggested.

 

The rest of the guys looked at each other before simultaneously saying, “No.”

 

“Why not? I haven’t had a drink in a few days,” Joey said.

 

“And it’s going to stay that way. Besides you promised Kelly that you wouldn’t party anymore,” JC said.

 

“Why do you feel the need to drink anyway?” Lance asked.

 

Joey sighed. “It makes me feel calm. It helps me to forget about things.”

 

“Forget what things?” Chris asked.

 

“Are you guys stupid? You know what,” Joey replied with a hint of annoyance.

 

“That night,” Justin said as it dawned on him.

 

“Yeah.” Joey nodded. “A lot happened that night. It was so scary. I mean, those…things showed up out of nowhere and…We could have died. To think about how close we all were…”

 

“You could’ve come to us,” Lance said. “You didn’t have to drink to make yourself forget.”

 

“Well, I didn’t want to have nightmares like nightmare boy over there,” he said as he looked over at JC. JC grimaced at the nickname. “Besides, none of you bothered to talk about it.”

 

“Boo hoo. That’s a crappy excuse,” Chris said.

 

They all turned to look at Chris in surprise. “Harsh much?” Justin asked.

 

“No.” Chris shook his head. “If there was something bothering me I would talk to you guys about it.”

 

“Well, is there?” JC asked.

 

“No, you guys are the ones screwed up. I’m just being my normal self,” Chris said.

 

“Are you sure?” Lance asked. “I mean what we went through was pretty traumatic.”

 

“Yeah. I mean, sure what happened was some freaky shit, but everything turned out all right,” Chris said.

 

“Yeah, but it probably wouldn’t have if Justin and JC hadn’t shown up,” Lance replied.

 

“How did you guys find us anyway?” Joey asked as he looked over at Justin and JC. Justin gave Lance and JC a look that clearly said that this was theirs to explain.

 

JC took a deep breath before he answered Joey’s question. “Lance showed me where you guys were.”

 

“What?” Joey asked, not fully understanding.

 

JC looked over at Lance for some help. “I talked to JC and told him we needed help.”

 

“But how could you do that? I thought the phone lines were down,” Chris said. JC and Lance exchanged looks at that.

 

“Well, JC and I…are kind of telepathic,” Lance said.

 

“What?” Joey asked in surprise.

 

“Yeah, that was kind of our reaction,” JC said.

 

“I don’t believe you,” Chris said. The guys all looked over at Chris in surprise. “You guys can’t be telepathic. It’s not possible.”

 

“Apparently so is having demons come after you,” Justin pointed out.

 

Chris sighed as he nodded. Justin did have a point. “So did you guys have this before that night?” Chris asked.

 

Lance shook his head. “No. That was the night it started.”

 

“So you’ve known about this for over a month?” Joey asked, and Lance and JC nodded. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

 

“We weren’t sure if it was going to last or if it was a fluke thing,” JC explained.

 

“Wow,” Joey said.

 

“Are you two keeping anything else from us?” Chris asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

 

“No, that’s it,” Lance said.

 

“That’s not true,” Justin objected. They all turned to look at him inquisitively. “You haven’t told us why you’ve been working so much.”

 

Lance looked over at Justin confused. “Why are you bringing this up? Working hasn’t affected my sleeping habits, and I’m not overworking. Why do we need to talk about it?”

 

“Because about a week ago you had said that working keeps your mind off of things. You need to talk about it,” Justin said.

 

Lance sighed as he remembered. “It’s about what happened. You were right,” Lance said as he looked over at Joey. “What happened was scary. I mean, there were these two…demons who could…I don’t know, but it felt like they were literally sucking the life out of me. I had been so scared when I saw what they were doing to you two.” Lance looked at Chris and Joey.

 

“Then I jumped between you guys and had them turn on me instead. It was such a weird feeling. It was like this invisible force pulling on you, and I couldn’t breathe. You guys are lucky you didn’t experience that,” Lance said as he looked over at JC and Justin.

 

“We might not have experienced the same thing, but we were just as scared,” JC said.

 

“Yeah, JC was a real worry wart.” Justin laughed, but they knew that he had been just as worried.

 

JC looked over at Lance. “I had never seen you so white. Not even that time you collapsed when we were with Lou. Then you weren’t breathing…I was so afraid I was going to lose you.”

 

“For a minute I thought…I thought I wasn’t going to make it,” Lance said as he thought back to that night. “It was like I could feel my soul leaving my body.”

 

“I was so relieved when you started breathing again. I didn’t…don’t want to lose you. Any of you,” JC said as he let his gaze linger on each of the guys.

 

“You won’t,” Joey assured.

 

“Yeah, we’ll be here to annoy you for a long time,” Chris added.

 

JC laughed. “Good.”

 

“I think we should spend break together,” Justin said. “To make sure no one relapses.”

 

“Where?” JC asked.

 

“Lance’s house!” Chris suggested.

 

“My house?” Lance asked in surprise. “Why my house?”

 

“You’ve got the huge backyard. Besides, it’s payback for making me room with Joey,” Chris said.

 

“Hey! I’m not that bad!” Joey objected.

 

“You snore loud enough to wake the dead,” Chris joked.

 

“I do not!” Joey said indignantly.

 

“Sorry, man, but it’s true,” Justin said.

 

JC saw where this was going and butted in before it could go any further. “So we’re staying at Lance’s?”

 

“Yeah,” was the answer that was received.

 

“Is this OK with you?” JC asked Lance.

 

“Yeah, I don’t mind. I haven’t had anyone over in a long time,” Lance said.

 

“What about me?” Joey asked.

 

“What about you?” Chris mocked.

 

“Do I have to stay at Lance’s or am I allowed to go home?” Joey asked.

 

“You’re allowed to go home,” Lance answered.

 

“No, he’s not,” Chris objected. “He’s stuck with us forever and ever and ever…”

 

Justin laughed. “Go spend time with Kelly and Bri.”

 

Joey smiled at the thought. “I’ll be glad to see them again.”

 

“I bet,” JC said. “It’s been a long time.”

 

“Yeah, but in a few hours the concert will be over. I’ll see them soon,” Joey said.

 

“Speaking of which,” Lance said as he looked at his watch, “We need to get a move on. We have a photo shoot and then sound check.”

 

They all got up from where they had been sitting and made their way to the room where the photo shoot was going to take place. It ran over an hour and they immediately made their way to the stage for sound check.

 

The sound check went off without a hitch, which was a good sign. Normally if they had a good sound check, the concert went just as well. That night when they stepped onstage they were all happy. They were going to have fun with this show since it was their last one for a while.

 

The show went perfectly. The crowd was so happy to see them and had so much energy that the guys used in their performance. They even did a two song encore at the end. They hadn’t enjoyed a concert this much in a long time.

 

They all caught a flight immediately afterwards to Orlando. The plane landed, and they were in Orlando by midnight. There were two vans waiting. One to take Joey home to his family and one to take the rest of them back to Lance’s house.

 

“Home sweet home,” Lance said as he opened the door. Justin, JC, and Chris followed him in. The four of them dropped their bags right inside the door with a sigh of relief.

 

Chris heard what Lance said and broke out into song. “Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play.”

 

Justin laughed and joined in. “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word. And the skies are not cloudy all day.”

 

Justin and Chris bust out laughing when they finished with JC and Lance joining in. “You guys are crazy,” Lance said.

 

“Yeah, but you love us anyway,” Chris said before he changed the conversation completely. “Which room is mine?”

 

Lance shrugged. “Whatever.”

 

“Sweet! I call Lance’s room!” Chris yelled as he ran up the stairs.

 

“No you don’t! You can’t sleep in my room!” Lance called out to Chris as he ran after him.

 

“Are you all right, J?” JC asked. “You seem a little out of it.”

 

“I’m just a little tired,” Justin said. He and JC had begun to walk the stairs.

 

“Well, get some rest then. I’ll see you in the morning,” JC said.

 

They exchanged “good nights” before they went into their separate rooms. All was quiet, which meant that Lance had either managed to get Chris out of his room, or just let him have it. Justin figured Lance managed to get Chris out, but at a price.

 

Justin lay down on his bed, but didn’t fall asleep right away. He didn’t really want to sleep because he knew that he would have that dream again. He managed to stay awake for about an hour before he fell asleep and began to dream.

He was walking in a forest, just like he had in his other dreams. He walked up to a certain spot before he felt himself stop. He wanted to keep exploring, but it seemed like he was rooted to where he was standing. He watched as two faint lights came closer and closer. Finally he saw what they were. They were the two demons. 

They moved to Justin’s right where he noticed Lance laying on the ground. He watched as Lance’s body was raised in the air a little and him grow weaker and weaker. It looked like the demons were taking the life from Lance. Finally after a few minutes Lance’s body slumped. Justin just knew at that moment that he had lost a friend. 

The demons didn’t stop there though. They moved onto Joey. Justin had to watch as they did the same thing to Joey as they did to Lance. He tried to move, but he wasn’t successful. Then, just like Lance, Joey was dead. 

The demons just kept right on moving. They turned to Chris and continued the same process with him. Justin struggled even harder this time, but it only resulted in making himself tired. Before he knew it Chris was gone too. 

Finally the demons turned to the last person…Justin. He struggled once more as he was forced to watch these demons do to him what they had done to his friends. There was nothing he could do. He was dead. 

Justin woke up.