“Didn’t get enough sleep last night?” Eva asked as she came up to stand behind Justin.

He smiled at her through his yawn, flashing his white teeth. “Not as much a I’d like to have gotten. I could still be sleeping if it wasn’t for these stupid interviews I have to be at. What are you doing up so early?”

“I have to go shopping for a birthday present for my niece.”

“Lacey, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re going all by yourself?”

The elevator doors opened and she followed him in. “No one else is up.”

“That’s cause it’s only nine and I think they were all out last night. You didn’t go?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well if you want some company, I’ll be done my interviews by eleven. I could come with you.”

She considered that briefly. “No, that’s okay.”

He shrugged and she was probably imagining things but she thought he looked a little disappointed. “Well I guess I’ll see you later today then,” he said as the elevator doors opened again.

“Sure. Bye.”

“Bye, Eva.”

She headed in the opposite direction from him, to the front doors of the hotel. She thought about hailing down a taxi but decided against it. It was nice out and she could walk.

Although she hardly drank coffee, she stopped for a large latte from Starbucks on her way downtown. Lately she had been feeling so rundown and worn out. She was trying to get more sleep but she usually ended up laying there staring at the ceiling for hours before she could fall asleep. She knew part of it was because she was anxious about seeing Nick, Mere, and Lacey in two days. It felt like forever since she last saw them and she missed them.

It only took her an hour to find a birthday present for Lacey but she stayed out shopping for the rest of the morning and a good portion of the afternoon. By time she got back to the hotel, it was almost four and most of the other dancers had gone out. She went to her hotel room and decided to spend the rest of the day watching some TV and wrapping Lacey’s present.

* * *

Justin was going through one of his suitcases, trying to find something to wear when there was a knock on his door. He crossed the room and opened it, finding Olivia on the other side.

“Are you guys done practice already?” he asked, letting her come into the room.

“Yeah. You’ll never guess what happened though.”

He pulled a pair of jeans from his suitcase and examined them. “What?”

“We were in the middle of practicing and Eva collapsed.”

He raised his eyes to Olivia. “What?”

“Yeah, she like fainted or something. So Eric called an ambulance and they took her to the hospital. So then we all just got to come back here.”

“Why did she faint?”

Olivia shrugged. “I don’t know. She was making a lot of mistakes during practice and then all of a sudden she was laying on the stage.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

Olivia shrugged again.

“Where is she now?”

“Still at the hospital.”

“So what’s going to happen for tomorrow’s concert?”

“I don’t know. Michelle was freaking out. I mean, first Tammy and now Eva? Dancing with you is a curse.”

He rolled his eyes. “I hope there’s not something actually wrong with her. Did she wake up at all?”

“Nope. She was out the whole time the paramedics were there.”

Justin grabbed his cell phone from the dresser. “I’m going to call Michelle.” He stepped out onto the balcony and dialed Michelle’s number. He restlessly tapped his foot against the ground as he waited for her to pick up.

“Hello?” Michelle asked, her voice sounding upset.

“Hey, it’s Justin. I heard about Eva. Is she alright?”

Michelle sighed. “I’m at the hospital right now. The doctor told us that Eva burned herself out. She’s bordering on exhaustion. She was dehydrated when they brought her in.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“She will be. But not I’ve got to find a replacement.”

“She’s not going to be able to do concerts at all?”

“I explained the circumstances to the doctor and he said she needs to rest for at least a week. That’s three concerts.”

“Shit.” He leaned back against the balcony railing and stared into his room as he thought about which of the female dancers could do it. An idea occurred to him. “Why don’t you do it?”

“Me?” There was a pause. “I guess I could. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll think about it.”

“How long is Eva going to be in the hospital?”

“She has to stay overnight.”

“Is she awake? Can I talk to her?”

“She’s sleeping. The doctor gave her a light sedative.”

“Do you think it’s alright if I come there and visit her?”

“I don’t know, Justin. I need her to get better as quickly as possible.”

“But you’re going to want to come back to the hotel, right? And that would suck if she woke up and nobody was there.”

Michelle sighed. “Fine. We’re at the Royal Victoria. I can’t guarantee you that the doctor will let you see her though.”

He ignored that, knowing he could manage to find a way in. “That’s fine. Have you call her family?”

“I did and left a message. I haven’t gotten a call back yet.”

“Okay.”

“Are you coming right now?”

“I have to do that radio interview at three. I’ll come after that.”

“I have to meet up with Eric and figure out everything so I’m leaving now. She’s on the third floor though.”

“Okay. Thanks, Michelle.”

“Bye.”

He went back in his room and waited impatiently for three o’clock to come around. The radio interview took forty minutes to do and immediately after, he found Lou and they took one of the vans to go to the Royal Victoria Hospital, half an hour away and he managed to get to the third floor without any problems. The nurse at the nurses’ desk reluctantly gave him Eva’s room number but warned him he couldn’t stay for too long. That was good enough for him and he walked down the corridor in search of room 329.

When he reached it, the door was half open and he was surprised to see that Eva laying in bed wasn’t the only person in the room. Sitting in a chair beside the bed was a man, looking at a cell phone. He seemed fairly tall and built with dark features. The man raised his eyes and Justin stopped in the doorway.

“Hello,” Justin said, a little uncertainly.

“Hi. You’re Justin, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, coming a bit into the room.

The man stood and extended his hand over the bed. “I’m Nick De Miranda, Eva’s brother.”

“Oh, hi.” Justin stuck his hand out and received a firm handshake from the other man. “I didn’t know you were in the city.”

“I’m out here on business and since Eva was going to be here as well I brought my wife and daughter out we could all see her.”

“Oh yeah. She mentioned something about that.”

“We were going to come and see her in the concert tomorrow.” Nick glanced down at Eva. “This wasn’t exactly what we had planned.”

Justin looked down at Eva. He didn’t know what exactly he was expecting, but this wasn’t it. She truly only looked like she was sleeping. She had in IV, but that was it.

“So it she going to be alright?”

Nick nodded. “She’ll be fine,” he said, smiling faintly. He caught Justin’s raised eyebrows. “I’m not being insensitive. I just know my sister. She’s done this before.”

“Really?”

“While she was in school. She tends to take on too much and she gets stressed out and burns herself up. She’ll kick back though.” Nick settled down in his chair. “So why are you here?”

“I just thought I’d come and see her and see if she was okay. Has she been awake at all?”

“She woke up when I first got here. The doctors gave her some kind of sedative though so she wasn’t with it for very long.”

“Oh.” Justin looked to the chair to his left and was thinking about whether or not he should sit and stay when there was the sound of a little girl’s voice.

“Daddy!”

Nick got up from his chair and leaned down to pick up the cute dark haired girl who ran into the room. “Hi, Sweetie. We have to be quiet. Aunt Eva’s sleeping.”

The girl looked down at Eva. “Aunt Eva sick?”

“A little bit. She just needs to sleep. Where’s Mommy, Lacey?”

She pointed out the open door and then looked to Justin. “Hi,” she said simply.

He smiled at her. “Hi. Are you Lacey?”

She smiled and nodded her head.

“I’m Justin. I’m one of your aunt’s friends.”

“Aunt Eva is sick.”

He smiled a bit more. “I know.”

“Nick, is Lacey…oh good.”

Justin looked to the door as a blonde woman came into the room. She went over to Lacey.

“Honey, you can’t run off like that,” she scolded gently.

“Sorry, Mommy.”

The lady turned to Justin and smiled. “Hi. I’m Mere.”

“Hi. Justin.”

She laughed slightly. “Oh, I know. What are you doing here? Just visiting Eva?”

“Yeah. She seems to have enough visitors though.”

She waved him off. “Oh, one more doesn’t hurt. She’ll be happy to see you.”

“Oh yeah?”

Mere took Lacey from Nick and rested her on her hip. “She told me on the phone last week that you’re the nicest person on the tour.”

He smiled. “Oh, well that’s cool.”

“Is she doing alright, Nick?” Mere asked.

“As long as she does what her doctor says and rest for a week.”

“Our choreographers will make sure she does that,” Justin said. “They want her to be able to dance for the rest of the tour.”

“Is everything else on your tour going well, Justin?” Mere asked.

“Yeah, everything’s been great. We have the televised concert coming up in a few weeks.”

“Eva was walking about that. She’s excited for it.”

“It’s really hard to sleep with you guys talking so loud.”

Justin turned around and smiled when he saw Eva groggily rubbing her eyes.

“Aunt Eva!”

Eva smiled brightly despite her tired appearance. “Hey, Lacey.” The girl was trying to free herself from Mere’s arms to get to Eva and Eva sat up slowly. “It’s okay, Mere.”

Mere let Lacey down on the bed and she crawled into Eva’s lap. Justin watched as Eva hugged the little girl close to her and whispered a few things to her. They were cute together.

When Eva looked up again, she looked to him.

“What are you doing here, Justin?”

“I came to see if you were alright.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Lacey, sweetie, don’t play with that,” Mere said, stepping forward and pulling Lacey’s hand away from Eva’s IV. She then leaned down to hug Eva. “It’s good to see you again, Eva.”

“You too,” Eva said, hugging her back. “I’m sorry this happened though. Now you guys can’t see me in the concert tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Nick said. “Now we can just spend more time with you. Lacey’s been so excited to see you.”

Eva smiled and combed her fingers through Lacey’s hair. “It’s so good to see all of you guys again.”

There was a knock on the door and they all turned to see a nurse standing there.

“I’m sorry, but visitor hours are over.”

“We can’t stay any longer?” Nick asked. “I’m her brother.”

“The doctor is insistent that Eva gets more sleep. Then she’ll be able to be released tomorrow morning.”

Eva smiled slightly. “It’s okay. It’s almost five anyways. I’ll be fine.”

“We’ll come back first thing in the morning,” Nick said. He leaned down and hugged her and Mere did the same.

“Lacey, hug Aunt Eva goodbye. She has to sleep now.”

“I wanna stay. No goodbye,” the girl pouted.

Eva kissed the top of Lacey’s head. “Go with Mommy, Lacey.”

“No.”

Mere sighed and leaned down to pick up Lacey. “Come on, honey.”

Lacey began to cry when she was pulled away from Eva. “Wanna stay!”

“We’ll see you tomorrow, Eva,” Nick said, rubbing the top of Lacey’s head affectionately as she cried and reached out for Eva.

“Bye,” Eva said softly. She turned to Justin. “Thanks for coming, Justin.”

He smiled. “No problem. I’ll see you at some point tomorrow I’m sure.”

She nodded. “Bye.”

“Bye.” He followed Nick, Mere, and Lacey, who was now crying harder, out the door. He turned to Nick as Mere tired to quiet Lacey.

“What hotel are you staying at?”

“Hilton.”

“That’s where we are too. Did you want a ride there?”

Nick smiled. “Sure.”

“Do you want to ride with Justin, Lacey?” Mere asked and Lacey sniffed and looked at him with teary eyes. She reached out for him. “Do you mind, Justin?”

“Not at all.” Justin took Lacey from Mere and smiled at the little girl in his arms. “I hear it’s your birthday soon. Hold old are you going to be?”

She sniffed again. “Four.”

“Wow. What presents did you ask for?”

Lacey smiled and began to ramble on about everything she had asked for. He glanced up at Mere and she smiled and mouthed ‘Thank you’. He smiled as well and then turned his attention back to Lacey, trying to keep up with her fast words.