It was 10 o'clock in the morning and all of the guys were up eating breakfast even JC. Chris and Lance saw this as a good sign because he would normally sleep in late so they knew that they at least had his attention.

"Did everyone sleep well?" Lance asked as they all sat around eating their breakfast. Everyone nodded.

"I can't get over how quiet it is here. It's never this quiet at home. There's always something going on and you can hear the traffic." JC said.

"That's why I picked this place. I figured we could go to the beach where it was more distracting or we could come here and just kind of sit around while enjoying the beauty of nature." Lance explained.

"Well I think this was a great idea." Joey said as he finished his breakfast and put his dishes in the sink. "I'm going to go explore the area. Anyone coming?" Everyone agreed to go explore with Joey. They left the dishes in the sink to do later.

They stepped outside and their breath caught. It was amazing. It was a beautiful day with the sun already beating down with lush green trees all around. It wasn't often they saw something like this. They lived in the city so they never got to really spend time in nature.

They all stood still for another minute or two when JC finally spoke up. "Look. There's a path over there. Let's follow it and see where it leads."

Everyone was frozen for a minute. They could already see the good effect this place was having on JC. He wasn't objecting to go and do something like he normally does when he has writer's block and is at home.

JC noticed no one was following him and said, "Are you guys coming or what?"

That seemed to snap everyone awake. "I'm coming." Joey said jogging over to JC. He didn't want to miss a moment of JC's good mood. It had been so long since he'd seen him act like this.

"Me too." Justin said and took off to where JC and Joey were. Chris and Lance weren't far behind. They were bringing up the rear and smiled to each other. JC had been here for less than a day and he was already relaxing and enjoying himself. JC was leading with Joey and Justin behind him.

They had been following the path and it was leading them up a huge hill. Chris was walking up it and decided to have some fun. He started huffing and puffing like he was really out of breath. Lance gave him a questioning look and Chris just shook his head. Lance understood what he was doing and a smile spread across his face. Next thing he knows Chris is lying on the ground.

"Go on without me. I can't make it." Chris said in a frail voice like he would die if he walked all the way up the hill. This had got the others attention like Chris had hoped.

"We won't leave without you. What would the others say?" Lance was pretending to be dramatic and playing along with Chris.

"We would say to suck it up, old fart." JC replied as he stood in front of Chris. He knew Chris was messing around.

"Old fart? Did you just call me an old fart?" Chris asked getting up from the ground.

"Yeah. What are you going to do about it? I thought you couldn't go on and for us to go on without you." JC mocked Chris.

"All right. That's it. You're so dead." Chris exclaimed and JC took off running up the rest of the hill and then running down it. Chris wasn't far behind him. JC was laughing while running down the hill. He was half way to the bottom of the hill when he tripped over what he thought was a root from a tree. This caused JC to lose his balance and he fell down the rest of the hill. He was stopped when his side connected with a rock. JC lay there panting from the running and the pain. He had fallen down the hill headfirst. He didn't move until the guys got to him. Chris was the first and the rest were right behind him.

"Are you OK, JC?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, I'll live."

"What hurts?" Justin looked at JC's pain stricken face. He could tell that he was in a lot of pain.

"My head hurts, but it's mainly my side."

"Here let's get you up." Joey said as he held out his hand for JC to grasp. JC did and Joey pulled him up and held him straight while Lance lifted his shirt.

"That's definitely going to be black and blue tomorrow." Lance felt around the right side of JC's ribs and sighed in relief when nothing was broken. "Well, you're ribs aren't broken. That's a good thing. Does it hurt in your ribs?"

"Yeah the lower half." JC said.

"Then my guess is that you bruised the lower half of your ribs. It'll hurt for a while, but you should be fine in a couple of days." Lance explained.

"I think we should head back." Chris looked at JC with worry. JC saw this.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Let's finish and see where the trail leads."

"I don't think that's a good idea. We should get you back to lie down for a little so the pain can subside. Besides, we have two weeks to come back and check it out."

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am. Now let's head back." Chris replied.

"Do you think you can walk?" Joey asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine." Joey nodded, but walked next to JC just incase.

They were walking in silence for a few minutes when Joey spoke up. "Hey Lance."

"Yeah?" Lance replied casting a curious look in Joey's direction.

"How did you know if JC's ribs were broken or not?"

"Hey that's a good point. You took control and knew exactly what you were doing. What gives?" Chris asked.

"I took a Red Cross course when I was 13. It was my mom's idea. She said it would be good for me so I would know what to do in every situation."

"I thought they only taught things like CPR. I never heard of them checking for broken bones." Justin said.

"Well, I didn't take the regular course that you normally take to get certified for CPR. That was included with the course that I took which was a survival course. I remember they took us to different rooms in the hospital, since that was where the course was located, to see what broken bones felt like and things of that nature. It was really interesting." Lance explained.

"That's really cool. How come you never told us about this?" JC asked.

"I don't know. It just never came up I guess. I remember thinking if I would really be able to handle those kinds of situations."

"I think you handled it well." JC said. Lance blushed a little and smiled his thanks to JC for the compliment.

The rest of the walk back was mostly in silence. Except for when Justin brought up the question on everyone's mind.

"JC?"

"Yeah, J?"

"I was just wondering how you fell down the hill."

JC sighed. "I'm not really sure. I was running down the hill and next thing I know I'm going headfirst down the hill. I remember my foot connecting with something. I think it was a tree root."

The guys let this sink in for a minute. Then Chris said, "That would make sense if there was actually a tree root on the hill."

"You mean there wasn't?" Lance asked in disbelief. How could that be possible, he thought.

"Nope. I was right behind JC. I saw him trip, but I didn't know what from because when I ran past the spot where JC fell there was nothing there. Not even a little stone or hole in the trail."

"I tripped over something. I know I did." JC objected.

"We're not saying you didn't. You might have tripped over your own foot or just lost your footing all together." Joey said.

"I didn't. I know for a fact I didn't. I tripped over something that was thin and hard. I don't think tennis shoes are thin and hard."

"OK. Just chill out. It was just a theory." Joey replied.

After that it was quiet the rest of the way except every once in a while they could hear JC suck in his breath from the pain. Justin wanted to say that maybe it would be a good idea if JC leaned against Joey, but knew how stubborn JC was so he decided not to bring it up.

After walking an hour, they made it back to the cabin. JC went inside to lay on the couch. He sighed in relief. His side still hurt. Probably made it worse from walking all the way back here, JC thought. He still didn't understand how it happened. He knew that he tripped over something, but he was normally really good at avoiding those kinds of things. JC closed his eyes and remembered running down the hill. He couldn't remember seeing it, but he knew he felt it. He sighed again, but this time it was in frustration. He figured none of the guys believed him except maybe Lance. He seemed kind of skeptical that there was nothing there when Chris looked. And why didn't Chris trip over it if he ran past the same spot he fell, JC asked himself. This was complicated. JC reminded himself to talk with Lance about it later. He would feel better if someone believed him because he knew the others didn't.

While JC was lying on the couch, the rest of the guys were doing other things. Lance was in the kitchen washing the dishes from earlier that day. Justin, Chris, and Joey were out swimming in the lake that they found behind the cabin. Lance watched them from the kitchen window while he was washing the dishes. He shook his head while chuckling when he saw Joey lift Justin in the air and throw him in the water with Justin protesting the whole time.

Once Lance was done in the kitchen he went into the living room where he saw JC sleeping. That didn't surprise him at all. He could just imagine how much pain he was in. Lance was bummed that this had to happen to JC especially since this was their first day on vacation and he was really enjoying himself and starting to relax. Lance could only hope that the rest of the vacation would be better. Just then JC woke up which surprised Lance because he thought JC would be asleep for at least a couple more hours.

"How are you feeling?" Lance asked.

"I'm OK. My side still hurts other than that I'm good."

"Good. Besides you falling down the hill, you had a pretty good day. Wouldn't you say?"

JC thought about it for a minute. "Yeah. I guess it has been a good day. I can't get over how beautiful it is here. This should really offer me some inspiration to break my writer's block."

"That's why I chose this place. I knew that you were stuck and I figured that while you were relaxing with no one, other than us of course, around then you would break your writer's block. We all really needed a break." Lance said.

"Yeah. Hopefully after this we can really get the album going." JC replied.

"I'm sure we will." Silence filled the room then JC decided to ask Lance.

"Do you believe me about me falling over a tree root? I could hear the doubt in your voice when you asked Chris about it."

Lance had to think about that. It was something that really puzzled him. "I do believe that you tripped over something and I don't think it was your own feet. I know you and you're never that clumsy. That's something Justin or Joey would do," was Lance's answer.

"I just had to know that at least someone believed me. I don't want to think I'm going crazy. I don't think I could handle that."

"You're not going crazy. You have all of us to ground you anyway. We all keep each other grounded because if we didn't we'd be insane by now with all the media and hectic schedules. The others probably do believe you it's just they don't know what to make of it especially Chris. I mean if there was something and Chris ran right by it, why wouldn't he trip?"

"Exactly! That's what I was thinking. I couldn't understand it either. I guess it doesn't matter anymore does it? It's over and done with." JC said.

"Right. It doesn't really matter. We can put this behind us and carry on with our vacation. I'm sure things will get better and nothing else will happen." Lance assured. "Now let's go bring in the three stooges for dinner."