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.

“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.