“We need this.” Chris grabbed an item off the shelf and threw it into the shopping cart. 

“No we don’t,” JC objected a little annoyed as he pushed the cart. Chris had woken him up at ten and needless to say JC hadn’t been very happy. He had just fallen asleep a few hours before that only to have Chris come jump on his bed complaining that Lance didn’t have any food and they needed to go food shopping. JC had agreed because he knew if he didn’t Chris would keep bugging him. 

“Oh! And this too,” Chris said as he ignored JC and grabbed another item. 

“Chris, are you even looking at what you’re getting?” JC asked. 

Chris looked over his shoulder at JC briefly before turning back to the shelf to grab a package of powdered donuts. “Of course I am.” 

“Then explain to me why we need three packages of donuts,” JC said. 

“Variety,” Chris said. 

“Variety?” JC repeated in disbelief. “We don’t need variety.” 

“Says the man who never listens to the same CD for more than a day,” Chris mumbled. 

“That’s different,” JC objected. 

“How?” Chris asked. 

JC paused before he said, “I don’t know, but it is.” 

“Whatever. You can have your music, and I’ll have my donuts. Besides, I got the chocolate covered ones,” Chris said. 

“So?” 

“So you know you’re going to steal some from me later. I got them for you as much as for me,” Chris explained and laughed at the lack of answer he received from JC. 

“Justin wants ice cream,” JC said suddenly as motioned for Chris to lead the way down the frozen food isle. 

Chris turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “Okay, random. Where’d that come from?” 

“Lance told me,” JC said. 

“He did?” Chris asked and JC nodded. “When?” 

“Just now,” JC answered. 

“How…That’s right.” Chris slapped his hand against his forehead as he realized what JC was saying. “I forgot about that thing you two have.” 

He just found out about a week ago that Lance and JC were connected telepathically. He hadn’t believed it at first, but Justin convinced him otherwise. He still thought it was weird, but then again things hadn’t been normal with them for a while. There were times where he would catch JC and Lance sitting in a room together not saying anything, but he could tell that they were talking to each other through their minds. He often wondered what they talked about and if they talked about him behind his back. He hoped they didn’t. 

JC’s voice broke Chris from his thoughts. “It’s a thing now?” 

“Very funny, smartass. You know what I mean,” Chris said as he looked back at JC who was smiling. He wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking, which resulted in him walking right into an open freezer door. 

A man who had been getting ice cream gave Chris a weird look. JC burst out laughing. “Real smooth, Chris. Real smooth.” 

“Shut up,” Chris grumbled as he rubbed his aching head, but was smiling inwardly. JC was getting closer to normal now. It was a drastic change from how he had been in the past month. 

JC had been a mess. He had been having nightmares frequently. Chris and Joey had yet to find out just what those nightmares were about, but knew better than to bring it up. JC claimed he hadn’t had a nightmare since he had talked to Justin about them. They had no reason to question it though because they had seen the dark circles under his eyes disappear. 

“Chris!” 

JC’s voice brought Chris back to reality. “What?” 

“Are you coming or are you going to chill here?” JC asked and laughed at his own joke. 

“Wow, JC, you’re hysterical,” Chris said sarcastically as he realized he was still in the frozen food section. “I get to drive. You drive like a grandma.” Chris followed JC to the check out where the cashier began to scan their groceries. 

“I do not!” JC protested. 

Chris looked over at JC and noticed that while he looked tired, he seemed all right. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was true. While JC may not be having nightmares anymore, Chris wondered if he was doing something else to take his mind off of whatever it was that he worried about. He was sure if that was the case his nightmares had something to do with it. He hoped things wouldn’t get as serious as last time.  

Justin sighed as he shifted on the couch where he was watching TV, or at least trying to find something that would hold his interest for more than five minutes. Lance was sitting in the chair next to the couch typing away on his laptop. 

Justin sighed again and Lance looked up from his computer. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” Justin said as he sighed again. 

“It’s something. You keep sighing every thirty seconds,” Lance said. 

“I’m bored,” Justin replied. 

Lance wasn’t surprised to hear that. They had been finished with the tour for about a week now and Justin probably didn’t know what to do with himself. He was used to constantly moving all day and not having time to himself. 

“So? Find something to watch on TV,” Lance suggested. 

Justin looked over at Lance with a raised eyebrow. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the past half hour?” 

“Why don’t you do find something else to do then?” 

Lance cleared his throat before shaking his head. His throat felt scratchy and his nose was stuffy. He knew he was getting sick, but was trying to head it off by drinking as much juice as he could. He must’ve had three glasses in just the past two hours. 

Justin thought for a minute as he watched Lance go back to typing. “Why don’t you?” 

“What?” Lance asked confused as he looked up from his computer again. 

“You’ve been working on that all morning. You should take a break,” Justin said. 

“I need to get this done,” Lance replied as he went back to typing. 

“Seriously, Lance. Take a break with me. JC and Chris should be back soon with food anyway,” Justin said. 

Just as Lance was about to reply Chris and JC came walking through the door, their arms laden with grocery bags. Justin pushed himself off the couch to help, happy for something that would occupy his time. Lance was about to go back to work now that Justin wasn’t bothering him anymore, but decided that it wouldn’t hurt to take a short break. He began to shut down his computer. 

He placed his computer in his office before heading to the kitchen. “Hey, where’s JC?” 

“He went to take a nap,” Justin said as he went to grab one of Chris’ donuts only to have his hand smacked in the process. 

“Don’t touch my donuts,” Chris said. 

“Why is he taking a nap?” Lance asked trying to focus their attention back on him. His first thought that he was just being normal JC who liked to sleep all day, but he couldn’t help think that he might be relapsing. 

“I don’t know, man. He’s JC. He doesn’t need a reason,” Chris answered. 

“He was up late last night,” Justin said. 

“Why?” Lance asked. 

Justin shrugged. “He was writing in his notebook. Probably working on a new song.” 

“How would you know anyway?” Chris asked. 

“I woke up at like four to get a glass of water,” Justin replied. 

“Why were you up at four?” Lance asked. He thought it was odd that both JC and Justin were up at four in the morning. Maybe JC did have a problem and he was confiding in Justin about it. Why else would they be up in the middle of the night? 

Justin looked over at Lance as if he had just grown another head. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? I was up at four to get a glass of water because I was thirsty.” 

“Are you sure that’s the reason?” Lance asked. 

“Dude, what is wrong with your voice?” Chris asked. 

“Nothing!” Justin objected. “Leave me alone!” 

Earlier that week Chris had made fun of Justin’s voice. He had found a rerun of the Mickey Mouse Club on late one night and proceeded to make fun of how girly Justin had sounded back then. He teased Justin all week about how he thought he heard the squeak Justin had when he was younger return to his voice. 

Chris rolled his eyes. “Not you, J. Lance.” 

“What?” Lance asked, just realizing that Chris was talking about him. 

“God, are you deaf now too?” Chris asked rhetorically. “I asked what is wrong with your voice.” 

“Nothing,” Lance echoed Justin’s earlier sentiment. 

“Liar,” Chris said. 

“Well if you knew then why did you ask?” Lance asked getting annoyed with Chris and his pointless questions. 

Chris looked at Lance for a minute. “You’re sick.” 

“No, I’m not,” Lance objected. 

“Yes, you are,” Chris insisted. “You sound nasally, you’re eyes are puffy, and your nose is so red we should call you Rudolph.” 

“I’m fine,” Lance said. 

“No, you’re not. I’m going to get you some medicine.”  

“You don’t have to do that,” Lance objected. 

“I need to drop something off at Joey’s anyway.” Chris turned to Justin. “Can I borrow your car for an hour?” 

“Yeah, whatever,” Justin said as he fished his car keys out of his pocket. Chris stared at Justin in disbelief. He had expected Justin to ask why he couldn’t borrow someone else’s or at the very least threaten to hang him from the rafters if he so much as scratched it. 

“Thanks,” Chris mumbled as he accepted the keys that Justin held out to him. 

He turned to leave the room when Lance said, “Dayquil, Chris. I have too much that I need to do.” 

Chris smirked and left the room. Lance shouted after him, “I’m serious! Dayquil!”  

JC was sleeping peacefully on his stomach in one of Lance’s guest rooms. Light filtered in from the hallway into the dark room as the door creaked open and a figure entered. JC mumbled in his sleep, and the person in the room breathed a quiet sigh of relief when he didn’t wake up. 

The person tried to reach across the dresser that was beside JC’s bed for the object he was looking for when he knocked over a lamp with a loud crash. JC immediately jumped up looking wildly around the room waiting for his eyes to focus. When they did they landed on the figure. 

“Chris! What the hell?!” 

“Sorry.” Chris held up the object he had been looking for. “I came in here to borrow your watch.” 

“Why do you need my watch? There are like five clocks in the house. Go find one of those,” JC said. 

“I lost mine, and I can’t carry a clock with me,” Chris said. 

“Where are you going that you need a watch?” JC asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. 

“I need to drop off something at Joey’s and pick up some medicine for Lance. Justin let me borrow his car for an hour and I probably already wasted five minutes talking to you,” Chris explained. 

“Wait a minute.” JC held up his hand. “Lance needs medicine? What’s wrong?” 

“He’s got a cold,” Chris said. “Looks like shit so I offered to get him some medicine.” 

“Oh,” JC said as he swung his legs onto the floor. “I should go see how he’s feeling.” 

“Are you done talking now?” Chris asked. JC nodded. “Sweet!” 

“Hey!” JC said indignantly to Chris’ back. 

Chris took off running for the front door. A couple minutes later he was on his way to Joey’s in Justin’s new Mercedes that he bought six months ago. Joey was staying with his wife, Kelly, and his daughter, Brianna during their time off since he didn’t get to spend as much time with them as he would like. 

Chris wondered if Joey was still doing well. JC hadn’t been the only one who had suffered in the past month. Joey hadn’t been himself. He had been irritable and grumpy all the time. Eventually they found out it was because Joey felt the need to go out partying and drinking to forget about the traumatic events he experienced two months ago. 

Before the tour ended they managed to get Joey to stop drinking by keeping an eye on him. They had even talked to Kelly and told her about the situation. She had been surprised to hear that Joey had gotten so bad in a short period of time, but agreed to keep him away from alcohol. They assured her that if there were any problems all she had to do was call them and they would be there in ten minutes. Five minutes later Chris pulled into Joey’s driveway and killed his thoughts with the ignition. 

He walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. The door opened a minute later to reveal Kelly. 

“Hi, Chris. How are you?” 

“Good. You?” Chris asked as he stepped into the foyer. 

“I’m good,” Kelly answered. 

Chris looked around wondering why the little girl he considered his niece hadn’t come running. “Where’s Brianna?” 

“She’s over at a friend’s house. We’re going out tonight. Joey’s in the shower getting ready,” she explained as she glanced up the stairs. 

“Well I won’t stay long.” Chris looked up the stairs before asking softly, “How’s he doing?” 

“He’s doing as good as can be expected I guess. We went out last night, but he got all crabby when I wouldn’t let him get a drink. Although that hasn’t been the case when he’s with Brianna. He’s been spending so much time with her, with me, that it doesn’t give him time to think about it,” Kelly said. 

“Good. I’m glad. He--“ Chris broke off when he saw Joey come down the stairs. “Hey, Joe! Look what I got for you!” 

Joey laughed at the object that Chris held up for him to see. “A stuffed monkey? Where the hell did you get that?” 

“The grocery store,” Chris said. 

“The grocery store?” Joey repeated with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yeah, you know, they have that aisle of miscellaneous stuff,” Chris explained. 

“So why a giant monkey?” Joey asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He walked over to Kelly and put an arm around her waist. 

Chris shrugged. “It reminded me of you.” 

“Are you implying that I’m a monkey?” Joey asked. 

“Maybe,” Chris said as he smiled impishly. Joey made to tackle him, but Chris backed up into the front door. He looked down at the watch he had borrowed from JC. “Well, what do you know? It’s time to go. See ya!” 

Chris ran out the door hearing Joey and Kelly laughing behind him. He jumped into the Mercedes and peeled out of the driveway. He only had a half hour left to pick up Lance’s medicine and have a little joyride before turning the car back over to Justin. 

He was glad that Joey was doing better. He was by no means back to normal, but he was on his way. Chris couldn’t help but think about how far Joey had come in a short period of time. It was only two weeks ago when they were still on tour that he was bad. 

Chris and Joey were hanging out in the room that they shared. The concert had ended an hour before and they were watching a movie as they came down from their post-show high. Joey got thirsty and walked over to the mini bar to get something to drink. 

“Dude, you cleaned out the mini bar?” Joey asked when he saw nothing in it. 

Chris didn’t even look up from the movie. “Yeah.” 

“Why?” 

This time Chris did look at Joey. He was annoyed that Joey kept trying to pretend he didn’t have a problem. “You know why.” 

Joey sighed in frustration. “I’m not going to get trashed. I just want one drink.” 

“No,” Chris said without any hesitation. He knew that Lance had a point. Joey was worse than they had originally thought and he wasn’t going to get any better if he kept on drinking. 

“C’mon, man. I know you have them stashed somewhere. Just let me have one.” Joey paused before adding, “Please?” 

“All right,” Chris said as he stood up and went into the bathroom. He came back out a minute later and threw a mini bottle to Joey. 

“Thanks,” Joey said as he caught it with one hand. He opened it and threw it back only to scowl after he swallowed. “Damn it, Chris! This is Kool-Aid!” 

Chris shrugged. “You said you wanted a drink. You didn’t say it had to be alcoholic.” 

Joey growled in anger as he grabbed a hold of Chris’ shirt and threw him up against the wall. “You knew what I meant!” 

“Dude, get off me!” Chris yelled as he roughly pushed Joey away from him. He matched Joey’s glare with one of his own.“You aren’t getting any until you can control yourself better. Look at what it’s doing to you!” 

“Whatever. I’m going to bed,” Joey mumbled as he flipped off the lights in their room. Chris knew he wasn’t really tired but trying to piss him off. He wasn’t going to give into what Joey wanted though. He lay down on his bed and began to channel surf. 

Joey had scared the hell out of him that night. Chris had never seen Joey so violent in all the years he had known him. Before that night he knew Joey had a serious problem, but didn’t realize how serious until he had experienced Joey’s anger in action. That was right after they said he wasn’t allowed to drink anymore, so they didn’t have to worry about that phase anymore. Things were looking up now though. He hoped everything got back to normal soon.