Chris drove away from the police station, JC in the passenger seat. They'd finally been released after spending the last couple hours explaining the situation. Well, really he'd done most of the explaining. JC had just added his statement about what'd happened back at his house with how Robert had forced himself inside and threatened them. The whole process had been made even longer with the officer they'd been directed to, Officer Cortez, interrupting with various questions. But that hadn't been the only interruption.

In the middle of recounting everything he'd been dealing with the last couple weeks, he'd gotten a phone call from his bank informing him that Robert had just tried to cash the check. They'd frozen his account like he'd asked and apparently Robert had grown so irate that he had to be practically escorted out. Officer Cortez had requested to talk to the bank then and he'd told them he'd be by later to discuss the situation with them. Chris, having expected that, had been more interested in what was going to happen now and had been disappointed to learn that it was mostly a waiting game to see what Robert would do next since he hadn't been able to cash the check. In the end, the cop had suggested Chris file a restraining order against Robert.

It made sense given everything that'd happened ever since Robert had first approached him, and it wasn't the first time it'd been suggested. Johnny had said something similar when Chris had first approached him about the problems his father was causing, but his concern of the press getting wind of the situation had stopped him from doing it. He didn't want to give anyone the chance to twist everything that'd happened and pull all five of them through the mud; they'd certainly had more than enough of that last year with Lou.

But Chris realized the decision wasn't just his anymore. The guys were involved and the last thing he wanted was to put them in danger, especially given what'd happened earlier at JC's. Not that the guys would offer any input because they trusted him and his judgment, and that just motivated him all the more to do what was best. Something Johnny would no doubt advise him on, knowing which options would keep them the safest and have the smallest risk of the press finding out about it.

Chris took his eyes off the road in front of him for a second to look at JC. He looked pretty relaxed considering what'd happened in the last few hours, and he hadn't even acted too different when he'd given Officer Cortez his statement about what'd happened. Hell, he hadn't even freaked out when Robert had held him at gun point. The fear had been easily read, but Chris had been just as scared in the moment.

He was sure he would never forget the way his stomach had dropped when he'd peeked over JC's shoulder and saw just who had been standing on the front porch. And then the almost paralyzing fear that took over when Robert had shoved himself inside and immediately turned a gun on JC. Thankfully, the shock had quickly worn off, allowing him to keep a level head and reassure JC as much as he could without setting off Robert. JC had looked at him with such trust that it'd been incredibly easy for him to do whatever he could to get Robert out of there.

But now that they were out of such a heart stopping moment, Chris's concern that JC had shoved away his feelings was bubbling to the surface. It wasn't that strange considering how much JC hated talking about himself and letting them in on his feelings, but that'd been a large part of what'd led to him snapping during a sound check. A day that they all remembered too well.

"You guys ready for sound check? Security says the area's clear," Johnny said.

Their manager had come out to their bus where they'd spent the last hour or so as their security team and the venue's security swept the arena for anything suspicious. There'd been no real communicated threat, but someone had heard whispers that somebody might have planted something to hurt them. Chris had looked out the bus window about a half hour ago and saw some of the local security leading around some bomb sniffing dogs they'd borrowed from the police. But it wasn't as scary as it'd been the first time they'd seen it since they'd had several threats from the beginning of the tour.

"Is there going to be more security for the meet and greet?" Lance asked.

"There'll be several in the room with you and the fans and a couple standing outside. We're not really expecting trouble, but they'll be in there just in case," Johnny said.

Chris nodded. That'd been another thing that almost seemed standard at this point in the tour. As strange as it may sound, they'd pretty much gotten used to it. It wasn't like they got a lot of time to themselves anyway since they were constantly shadowed by their bodyguards.

They all followed Johnny off the bus and into the venue, heading directly to the stage so they could get going with sound check and then head off to the meet and greet in a nearby room. As they started singing, immediately they could tell there was something off with JC. But they were content to dismiss it because they'd all had off days. That all changed when JC hit a very bad note.

Immediately the four of them stopped, completely thrown. It wasn't that JC never made mistakes, but it happened so rarely that they were unsure how to react, especially because if he did make a mistake he was the first to beat himself up over it. But now, he was suspiciously silent and looked like he wasn't really present in the moment.

"Uh...JC?" Justin said, stepping closer to JC as he tried to get his attention.

JC turned to him, looking kind of startled like he didn't know why Justin was acting so unsure. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," JC said. Then he quickly corrected himself, shaking his head. "No. No, I'm not."

"What's wrong?" Joey asked. All of them looked at JC in concern. He'd seemed fine all day...hell, lately. So none of them knew what could possibly be causing this.

For some reason that simple question seemed to set him off.

"What's wrong?" JC repeated, incredulous. "Are you kidding? We just had security sweep the building for bombs and other weapons. Are you seriously telling me I'm the only one that's freaked out by that?"

They all glanced at each other, unsure what to say. JC's voice was echoing through the empty arena, still wired to the microphone headset. Never had they seen him act like this, especially in front of other people.

"This isn't the first time we've had to take precautions," Lance said, looking at JC cautiously.

"And that makes it okay? We have people that want to kill us! Crazy fans that don't want us to be with anyone else but them and jealous boyfriends seeking revenge."

Justin reached out for him. "JC..."

"No!" JC yelled, jerking away from Justin's touch. His eyes were wide and he looked like he could bolt at any second. "And the ones that don't want us dead want to smear our name. They're spreading rumors, suing us, accusing of us of ridiculous things..."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Chris stepped in then, feeling like things were going to get out of control. Justin was normally pretty successful at calming JC down, but even he looked at a loss as to what to do. Chris met JC's wild gaze and continued, "Any of it. We can't control what people do."

"I know!" JC all but shouted. "I know it's not our fault, but it's too much. We're just a band. Why would anyone want to kill us? Because we're famous?" He didn't wait for an answer as he continued to rant. "It's not our fault a tornado made us reschedule a show or that we got stuck in traffic. But they blame us anyway. Because we're successful, they hold us to a higher standard. We're supposed to be perfect. They don't care that we're human and make mistakes like everyone else. Or that their expectations are so suffocating. They all just want a piece of us, and it's too much!"

They all could feel something in the air shift, but Chris was the first to recognize what was happening. JC had released all of his emotions in a big long rant without pausing for air, and he looked unsteady on his feet like he could pass out at any moment. Or hyperventilate which would likely happen just before, causing the unconsciousness. And it was something Chris wanted to avoid.

Just as he reached out, JC crashed to his knees, his face red from the effort of trying to breathe. Chris ripped off his microphone before kneeling down in front of him. He put both of his hands on JC's shoulders, pulling him in close enough so he could speak softly in his ear. "It's all right, Jace. Just calm down. Focus on breathing, okay?"

JC took a couple small, shaky breaths and Chris gently encouraged him to take longer, deeper ones. He kept his demeanor calm, but his thoughts were racing, wondering just how they hadn't noticed something was wrong before it got to this point.

Once he'd gotten JC calmed down, they'd taken a short break to make sure he was okay and give themselves time to regain their bearings as his nearly passing out had scared the hell out of them. They'd wanted to talk everything out right then, but they'd still had a list of obligations that needed to be fulfilled. So they'd continued with their hectic schedule, finishing up sound check and heading into meet and greet before the concert. It hadn't been until after the show and they were back at the hotel that they'd been able to get JC to tell them what he'd been feeling and why he hadn't said anything sooner.

It'd been kind of a struggle to pull out the reasons behind JC's meltdown because naturally he'd wanted to forget it'd happened. But they'd managed to get him to admit that things had been building for a while. Ever since the lawsuit things had been nonstop, their lives a constant whirlwind of appearances, shows, photo shoots...you name it, they did it. Then the tour just added even more stress, especially when they started to get death threats. He'd tried not to let it get to him, wanting to let it go and not worry like the rest of them so he'd forced himself to shove those feelings aside.

They'd all felt guilty for that, having felt like they hadn't provided JC with much opportunity to talk to them about what he was feeling. The first time they'd gotten a threat on their lives, they'd all been scared and jumpy and they'd all talked about it as they'd needed that release. And while they didn't get threats that often, it'd happened enough since then that they'd pretty much grown used to it and the fear hadn't been much of a factor anymore because they'd trusted their security implicitly. That obviously hadn't worked for JC and since that day, they'd all sworn they would make sure he knew they could talk to them about anything. They also vowed to keep an eye on him and ensure he didn't keep too much bottled up.

That was largely what prompted Chris to look over at his younger friend and ask, "Are you okay?"

JC turned away from the side window he'd been looking out of to look at Chris. "I'm fine," he replied. The irritation was so slight Chris might've missed it if he hadn't been purposely watching for signs that countered what JC said.

"You don't have to be strong. You were held at gun point. I wouldn't blame you if you were freaked," Chris told him, trying to keep one eye on JC and one eye on the road in front of him.

JC rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he said, but Chris could tell he was dying to say more. The only reason he wasn't was because he likely didn't want to give Chris any reason to continue this conversation, avoiding yet another heavy subject he should talk about. Just like how he'd refused to talk about Emma.

Chris was tired of fighting with JC to get him to open up about stuff he should be openly talking to them about and he realized this was the perfect time to get through to JC. They were confined to the car, which meant JC would no longer be able to avoid him. But he knew things could get heated so he pulled off the road onto the shoulder.

"What are we doing? Why'd you stop?" JC asked, looking at him in confusion.

Chris threw the car in park and shut off the engine. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

Chris wasn't fooled by JC's attempt at ignorance. "You know what."

Almost immediately JC's calm expression disappeared as he scowled at Chris. "You can't force me to talk. Not about anything."

"Well, we're not going home until you do so..." Chris shrugged. He was leaving the decision up to JC, though he knew it wasn't much of a choice. The only way JC was going to get home was if he finally opened up to Chris about some things, and the anger on his face told Chris he knew that. Though he still tried to weasel his way out of it.

"You're bluffing," JC said.

Chris shook his head. "I'm not."

JC continued to stare at Chris, his eyes narrowed challengingly, but Chris just calmly stared back. After a few seconds of them just looking at each other, Chris raised an eyebrow, silently asking JC if he was really going to waste their time with a staring contest. JC's glare intensified before he scowled and angrily pulled on the door handle, shoving the door open.

Chris got out of the car too and saw that JC was standing with his arms crossed and a closed off expression. As if he could sense that Chris had gotten out and closed the gap between them, JC said, "You're unbelievable."

Chris bit back the playful "I know" and waited for JC to continue, knowing he had more to say. He wasn't disappointed when JC turned towards him, his blue eyes practically ice cold.

"You have no right to give me an ultimatum. I've done nothing wrong. Just because I don't want to talk about things doesn't mean I just need one good push to go off the deep end."

"I'm not asking you to talk for the hell of it. It's obvious you need to talk. You've gone through some heavy stuff lately, but instead of talking about it, you're pushing all your feelings away. And we already know how that turns out."

"Just because it happened once doesn't mean it'll happen again!" JC shouted.

"It will if you don't deal with your break up and what happened today," Chris replied, fighting to keep his voice calm but making sure to be firm. "You may feel like we're up your ass over nothing and maybe we aren't handling this the best. But you obviously aren't either."

"How do you even know? I've been broken up with Emma for over a week. You don't think I've spent that time dealing with it?" JC demanded.

"No," Chris said simply. "You might have cried or trashed your house, but the way you practically flinch when we mention her, that tells me you haven't dealt with it. You can't stand it when any of us say anything about her."

"Because she used me to cheat on her boyfriend!" JC yelled. "I hate that she put me in that position and even more I hate that she led me on for three months. She let me fall in love with her before breaking it off. The whole thing makes me feel like shit so why would I want to talk about it?"

"So you can stop feeling guilty for what happened." JC opened his mouth to object, but Chris quickly cut him off. "Deny it all you want, but I know you feel guilty. You blame yourself for what happened - for not seeing it and for helping her cheat on her boyfriend. Don't you?"

JC glared at Chris, and he knew that JC was pissed that he'd been able to crawl in his head like that. Out of all of them, only he and Justin could get inside JC's head and have a pretty damn good idea what he was thinking. For Justin it was because of how close he and JC were as they'd always been able to practically read each other's minds, but Chris...he could just read people well. Always had.

"So what if I do?" JC snapped. "What can you do about it? Any of you? Talking wouldn't help. All it'd do is make Joey and Justin feel their own guilt because they're in a great relationship and I've been screwed over yet again."

"And that's why you didn't talk about it? Because you didn't want to make them feel bad?"

"Yes."

Chris moved so he was standing right in front of JC, blocking the afternoon sun as he locked eyes with him. "Bullshit. If that were true, you could've talked to me or Lance. You didn't talk about it because you didn't want to."

"Which I thought I made pretty obvious but here we are," JC said bitterly, angrily throwing his arm out in a sweeping gesture.

"You think you're keeping us from worrying by not talking about it and revealing how truly hurt you are, but all you're doing is making us worry more. Because we can tell when you're upset and trying to hide it."

"Yeah, now. But you didn't before, which was fine by me. That's how I want it."

Chris sighed, shaking his head slightly. "We knew you were upset. We just didn't want to believe it. Things were so crazy we were willing to write off any weird behavior as stress or just having a bad day because we knew if it was anything more serious, you'd tell us."

After Lance had gotten sick where he'd passed out and ended up in the hospital back when they were still with Lou, they'd all promised each other that if they weren't able to handle something they'd tell someone. Never again did they want to be blindsided, especially when things got bad enough that their health was effected. But JC had nearly gotten to that point.

"And now you don't trust me to tell you when something's wrong. Instead you shadow me and pester me constantly, not considering that you're just adding to how miserable I feel," JC said, the anger still there but lessening somewhat.

"What happened on tour never should've happened. We should've approached you when we knew something was up and you weren't talking to us. So we're just trying to make sure we don't make that same mistake again."

"Because I'm too weak to take care of myself, right?" JC practically sneered.

Chris sighed again. "No one thinks you're weak. Emotional? Yes. But definitely not weak. We're just concerned that you're shoving too much stuff to the backburner. Just like you'd be if it was one of us."

Chris watched JC's face, waiting to see how he'd react to the circular logic he'd used on him to try to get him to understand. It took a few seconds, but the harsh lines on JC's face smoothed out and he let out a long breath as he slumped against the side of the car. They stood in silence for a moment before JC spoke.

"I was terrified when that gun was pointed at me." His voice was so quiet that Chris wouldn't have heard him over the passing traffic if he hadn't been standing right in front of him.

Chris nodded. "I know." He'd never forget the look on JC's face when Robert shoved him inside and threatened JC's life. "I'm sorry you were put in that situation."

JC shook his head, dismissing Chris's apology. He looked into Chris's eyes. "You got me out of it. Just like I knew you would."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't about to let anything happen to you. It's my job to look out for you...even if it means saving you from yourself."

JC was silent for a few seconds before he said softly, "Thanks."

Chris smiled slightly and lightly slapped him on the shoulder. "C'mon, I'll take you home and finally get out of your hair."

"You're serious?" JC asked, but Chris could hear the silent "That's it?" like JC had expected more of an interrogation now that he'd finally gotten started to open up. But Chris had gotten what he'd wanted - JC had gotten some things off his chest and released some of the feelings he'd been keeping under wraps ever since he and Emma broke up. He didn't need to hear everything; all he wanted was JC to own up to his feelings instead of trying to hide them away for their sake.

"Yep," Chris said simply and walked around the car to get back into the driver's seat. JC still looked a little stunned, but he didn't argue as he got back in the car. Chris hadn't really learned anything he didn't already know, but he was still counting it as a victory. Getting through to JC at all was always a victory in his book because they all knew he could be one stubborn son of a bitch.

***********

Justin idly flipped through the thirty or so channels the hospital TV that hung from the ceiling in the corner of the room got. There was nothing on, which wasn't all that surprising but he was desperately searching for something that would take his mind off the impending results of his tests. His doctor had insisted on running several tests to confirm his suspicions of another infection spreading from the cat bite. The doctor seemed baffled by the whole thing, which just increased Justin's anxiety and alarm.

"I didn't take you for a Young and the Restless fan."

Justin turned his head to the door and saw Joey enter, holding two cans of soda. He handed the root beer to Justin and reclaimed the seat he'd been sitting in next to the bed. It made Justin thankful that Joey had stuck around, doing his best to keep Justin's mind off of stuff.

"There's nothing on," Justin replied with a bit of a whine.

Joey laughed. "Well it's nearly two o'clock. What do you expect?"

"You were gone a while," Justin said, changing the subject but still trying to avoid the obvious question that Joey no doubt wanted to ask - had the doctor come in it yet.

"Took me a while to find a machine that actually worked." Joey glanced at him. "You owe me five bucks for the root beer by the way."

Justin laughed. "You could've gone down to the gift shop you know. Saved yourself the trouble."

"Sure now you tell me," Joey said, trying to act offended but the smile ruined the illusion.

A suddenly shriek directed their attention to the TV as one of the leading actresses threw a vase at the guy's head. There was another woman in the scene that was trying to calm the other down, but it didn't appear to be working. That was all Justin could really make out since his vision was still kind of fuzzy. He was just thankful it hadn't gotten any worse.

"I can't believe he couldn't tell them apart," Joey mused, watching the scene play out. "He should know who his girlfriend is even if they are identical twins."

Justin looked at him. "I can't believe you're a Young and the Restless fan."

"Not me." Joey shook his head. "Kelly watches it."

"And you watch it with her obviously."

"Every once in a while," Joey admitted. He looked at Justin. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice for your woman. It's all part of being a good boyfriend."

Justin laughed. "I don't have to do that. Kim hates soap operas."

"Yeah, but she makes you do other things with her. Like go shopping."

"Hey, I like shopping," Justin protested.

Joey smirked. "I know."

Justin ignored the jab, more than used to the guys ripping on him for enjoying shopping which always led to them making fun of the number of shoes he owned. He knew that he'd gotten lucky with Kim in that she wasn't high maintenance at all - much like Kelly seemed to be. Of course they both had their quirks and could be very particular about things, but considering the girlfriends they'd all had in the past, they were both much more easy going than most of the women they'd all dated. None of the guys seemed to expect either of them would let their women go, which had likely prompted them to start wondering if marriage was in the future for two of their friends.

"Are you going to marry Kelly?" Justin asked, glancing at Joey.

Joey looked at him startled. "Where'd that come from?"

"C'mon, it's not really out of left field, is it? You guys are going to have a kid together. I think we're all kind of wondering if that's the next step."

"You sound like Lance."

"He talked to you about this?" Justin asked.

"Yeah, but he's been bugging me about it for a while now. I think he's waiting for it to happen because Kel and I have been dating steadily for a year now," Joey said. He and Kelly had been dating on and off for the last five years or so, but started things up again several months before the lawsuit.

"And what did you tell him?"

"That I'm on the five year plan," Joey said, offering him a smile. "I can't see it happen anytime soon, but I'm not rolling it out completely either. I mean, there's got to be a reason we keep getting back together, right?"

Justin shrugged and nodded. "You guys are great together, and you'll make great parents."

Joey looked like he was going to say something, but he quickly closed his mouth when Doctor Buchanan came walking in. This was it. They'd been waiting for hours for the results of the tests the doctor had done and it looked like they were going to finally get them.

"What's the news, doc?" Justin asked.

"You have Bartonella henselae just as I expected," the doctor said, stepping further into the room and it was then they saw a nurse had entered behind him. "I'm still baffled as to how it appeared so quickly, but like I told you before, it's completely treatable."

"Just means another night in the hospital, right?" Justin could already see where this was going, and he didn't like it. Not at all.

Doctor Buchanan nodded. "I'm afraid so. But it'll likely only be one more night and you can be released sometime tomorrow. Assuming of course the infection doesn't get worse or you pick up another infection."

"So you're switching his meds out?" Joey asked, his eyes on the nurse who was messing with the IV that was attached to Justin's right arm.

"We're going to give him something a bit stronger. There are greater risks of side effects, but it'll lessen the chances of the infection spreading or of another one appearing."

Justin watched as the nurse injected some clear liquid into his IV, emptying out a rather large syringe. He turned his attention back to the doctor. "What are the side effects?"

"Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain are just a few of the more common ones, and I imagine you'll experience at least a couple of them," the doctor said. "If you notice anything else though that seems odd like your vision continues to worsen or any of your other senses seem to be effected, be sure to tell someone."

"Don't worry. He will," Joey assured the doctor.

Doctor Buchanan looked at Justin. "I'll be back to check on you in a couple hours before I leave for the day."

"Thanks," Justin said with a nod.

The doctor left without another word and the nurse followed him, leaving the two of them alone again. Justin looked over at Joey, who was taking a swig of his Pepsi. "You can go you know. You don't have to stay."

"You trying to get rid of me?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No. I just don't want you to feel obligated to stay."

Joey gently slapped Justin's leg that was covered with the light hospital sheet. "C'mon, I'm not going to just leave you hanging bored. Kim would kill me," he said with a laugh.

"I guess I should call her."

"Probably a good idea," Joey agreed. "You know how mad she'll get if you don't. She worries about you."

"She's almost as bad as JC," Justin groused as he reached for the bed off the nightstand.

Joey groaned. "Crap. He told me to keep him updated." He looked at Justin. "Care to switch?"

Justin shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. "No way, man. You're on your own."

Joey did some grousing of his own as he pulled himself to his feet and stepped out into the hall so he could call JC. Justin's attention was pulled back to the phone when he heard the line open and his girlfriend's voice come through clearly. He sighed, not looking forward to spiking her worry as he relayed what the doctor said.

***********

JC was trying to write in his study, hoping a change in scenery would help him through the slight writer's block he was experiencing. Chris had dropped him, gathered his stuff together and headed back to his own house a few hours ago. It'd worried JC that he was going back to his place where Robert had confronted him before, especially since he refused to have their bodyguards shadow him. But Chris had assured him he'd be fine as he'd already had his locks changed and he wasn't going to be at his house long anyway since he was planning to meet with Johnny to update him with everything that'd happened.

And as if that wasn't enough, JC was worried about Justin. Joey had called him shortly after Chris had left and told him that it seemed Justin had gotten another infection that was completely separate from the initial one and would have to stay in the hospital at least another day. It was really concerning because JC had never heard of anyone having so much trouble from just a simple cat bite...and a cat that had passed its medical exam with no hint of any disease or anything.

He'd been prepared to drop everything and go over the hospital, but Joey had told him it wasn't necessary. He was going to stay with Justin until Kim could get off her shift at the hospital she interned at across town, and he'd insisted that the last thing Justin needed was JC fretting over him. So it was with great reluctance that JC had stayed home, knowing that Joey had a point. He could be overbearing at times and while he could usually put on a good front to keep everyone calm in a crisis, that usually went out the window when it came to hospitals. It wasn't clear if his fear of needles transferred into hospitals or if it was just the environment itself that always put JC on edge so much that he found it nearly impossible to stay calm and rational.

But he could never keep himself from worrying and that was the sole reason for his distraction, making it extremely difficult to focus on writing. It would've been a good way for him to get his mind off the worry for Chris and Justin, but he couldn't seem to push away the worry long enough for him to get engaged in the new song he was trying to write. The whole thing was vicious circle, and it left him feeling beyond frustrated.

Finally, he tossed his notebook aside and glanced up at the wall to see that it was dinner time. He didn't really feel hungry since he'd had a late lunch, but he wasn't sure what to do with himself now that he'd given up writing. It was then that he'd caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

JC looked through the open doorway of the study and saw the end of a tail disappear from view. He was on his feet, a bit surprised that he'd spotted Sheila because he hadn't seen her all day. But what really surprised him was that she hadn't sought him out because according to Chris, he hadn't fed the cat that morning so she had to be starving by now.

He followed her path, knowing that she was headed upstairs and beyond curious as to where she disappeared to. The only time he typically saw her was in the morning and though he'd often searched the entire house for her, he'd yet to discover her hiding place. So he wanted to see where she'd go so then he'd know where to look for her next time he needed to.

When he got to the top of the steps, he just saw her tail disappear into a room down the hall on his right. He walked down the hall a few feet and stepped into one of the guest bedrooms, only to stop in his tracks. In front of him was not the charcoal colored cat he'd adopted but a woman. A woman who just happened to look exactly like Vanessa.

Unable to believe what he was seeing, JC blinked hard, holding his eyes shut for a second before opening them again. The woman was gone, replaced with the cat he'd been looking for. The cat stared right at him and JC swore she almost looked amused as he stood in the doorway, his mouth ajar.

He quickly shook his head, trying to clear the image of what he'd seen a second ago from his mind. Maybe Chris was right. Maybe he hadn't been dealing with his break up well and this was his mind's way of getting him to focus on something else. Or it was a hallucination brought on by the stress and worry he'd been feeling all afternoon. It was the only logical explanation because cats couldn't turn into people, especially not someone one your best friends was dating.

A sudden feeling of claustrophobia came over him and the only thing he could think about was getting out of the house. He backed out of the room, turned on his heel and all but ran downstairs, swiping his keys off the table in the entryway on his way out the front door. After pausing for a brief moment to lock the door, he jumped into his car and pulled out of the driveway. It wasn't until he'd turned off his street that he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

JC took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart. He wasn't sure why he'd taken off like that, but he knew he couldn't go back. Not yet. He needed some time to think and sort through his feelings, knowing that had to be behind what'd just transpired in the guest room upstairs.

Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd done the right thing in leaving.