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.