Justin opened the freezer and grabbed what he was looking for. He set the half gallon of chocolate chip ice cream on the kitchen table next to his bowl and spoon. He was grateful that Lance had told JC to get him his ice cream. He scooped ice cream into his bowl until it was full. He put the ice cream away and had just sat down at the table when Chris came walking through the door.

“You got Lance’s medicine?” Justin asked as he gestured to the small brown bag that Chris set on the counter by the sink.

“Yeah,” Chris said.

Justin ate a spoonful. “So how’s Joey?”

“He’s good,” Chris said. “Kelly says he still wants a drink occasionally, but I think the worst is over.”

“Good,” Justin said.

“What’s good?” JC asked as he walked into the room.

“Joey’s doing better,” Justin answered.

“Really?” JC looked over at Chris for confirmation. Chris nodded. “That is good.”

“You want to give Lance his medicine?” Chris asked JC. He pulled the box of Nyquil tablets out of the bag and grinned mischievously.

Justin laughed. “Didn’t Lance tell you to get him Dayquil?”

“Huh.” Chris looked down at the box in his hand. “I must’ve grabbed the wrong box.”

“Lance is going to kill you,” Justin said as he laughed at Chris again.

“Yes, but you and I both know that he won’t rest unless we force him to,” Chris said. “So do you want to do it, JC?”

“Yeah,” JC said hardly hesitating.

“Really?” Chris asked, looking surprised. “You’re not going to fight me on this and yell at me for purposely getting him the wrong medicine?”

“No. I agree with you. As soon as you left Lance got back to work. I’ve tried to make him lie down, but he won’t listen to me. He needs to rest in order to get better,” JC explained.

“Well, here you go.” Chris held out two pills in his outstretched palm to JC. JC accepted the pills and headed into the living room. Justin wanted to see how this was going to play out, so he put his now empty bowl into the dishwasher. He walked into the living room in time to see Lance wash the pills down with his juice.

“Thanks, JC,” Lance said as he set his glass back on the coffee table before getting back to work.

JC nodded as he sat down next to Justin on the couch. He grabbed the remote and began to flip through the channels. Justin knew he was just biding time until Lance fell asleep so he could put him to bed afterwards.

Justin looked over at JC just as he yawned, which made Justin yawn. He had almost forgotten how tired he was. He had only gotten a couple more hours than JC did. He wished the horrifying nightmares would stop so he could sleep better. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in over a week.

His nightmares freaked him out. It was disturbing to have the same one night after night, especially one so horrible. While he was freaked he was also confused. He didn’t know why he was having the same nightmares JC did. All he knew was that he was tired of waking up in a cold sweat night after night. Last night was no different. He had known he wasn’t going to get back to sleep anytime soon, and that was why he was getting a glass of water.

He had been surprised to see JC up. He had come downstairs to find a light on in Lance’s office so he walked towards it when he saw JC’s reflection in the hallway mirror. He knew JC had been too wrapped up in whatever he was writing that he hadn’t noticed him, so he turned back to the kitchen. He couldn’t help, but wonder why JC had been up. Contrary to what he told Lance earlier he didn’t believe it was because JC was working on a new song. Last night hadn’t been the first time he had caught him up in the middle of the night.

Justin was concerned that JC wasn’t getting enough sleep. He was a little surprised that it had gotten past Lance and Chris considering they were supposed to be keeping an eye on each other. That was the reason for staying at Lance’s. Justin was afraid that JC might relapse. He knew if he wanted to stop that from happening that he would have to talk to JC and see what was keeping him up at night.

Justin had been thinking about talking to JC anyway. He wanted to tell him about his nightmares. He knew that if anyone would understand, JC would. He had thought about doing it sooner, but he had been so sure that the nightmares would go away. That had been about five days ago, and Justin was reaching the end of his rope. He didn’t know how much more of this nightmare he could take.

“Chris!” Lance yelled, effectively snapping Justin out of his thoughts. Justin looked over at Lance to see that his eyes were starting to close on him.

“What?” Chris asked as he walked into the living room.

“Don’t stand there looking all innocent. You know what you did,” Lance said.

Chris pretended to look puzzled. “What did I do?”

“You gave me Nyquil! I specifically asked for Dayquil!”

“Whoa, hold on there!” Chris held up his hands. “I may have bought the pills, but I wasn’t the one who gave them to you.”

Lance looked over at JC waiting for an explanation. JC sighed before he simply said, “You need rest.”

“So you drugged me?” Lance asked.

“I had to!” JC said. “You wouldn’t rest otherwise. If you did, I wouldn’t have had to collaborate with Chris and force you to. Now c’mon let’s get you into bed.”

“I hate you,” Lance said drowsily as JC pulled him out of the chair and pushed him towards the stairs. JC didn’t bother to answer as he led Lance to his bedroom where he made him lay down. Within a few minutes Lance was asleep.

JC sighed as he turned over onto his back. He stared at the alarm clock on his dresser that glared back at him. 3:41 am. He seemed to wake up around the same time every night. He waited four more minutes before he got out of bed to make his rounds.

Every night since they had arrived at Lance’s he would wake up in the middle of the night and check on the guys. While he didn’t have his nightmares anymore, they still stuck with him. Despite what Justin had told him he believed that there was a good chance that the demons could come after them again. He knew it was silly, but he couldn’t sleep well until he checked on his friends to make sure that they were all right.

He made a left out of his room to check on Lance first. He gently opened the door that he had closed earlier to ensure that Lance wouldn’t wake up. JC stood in the doorway for a minute watching Lance to make sure he was sleeping comfortably. When he was satisfied that he was, he closed the door with a soft click and turned back toward the other end of the hall.

JC poked his head into Chris’ room to see that he was sprawled over his bed snoring softly. He quietly backed out of the room. There was only one more person to check on. JC walked past his room before noticing that Justin’s door was open. Immediately it registered as weird to JC because Justin had been sleeping with his door closed lately.

He walked into Justin’s room to find his bed empty. JC felt his heart momentarily stop, but he knew that he should search the house before he freaked out. JC took a deep breath as he stepped into the hall. As he let it out he noticed a yellow light leak out from under the bathroom door.

He walked over to the bathroom and gently pushed the door open. Once the door was open JC’s eyes focused on Justin who was pouring a couple of aspirin into the palm of his hand. He couldn’t help but inwardly sigh with relief. Justin was fine.

“Headache?” JC asked quietly. Justin jumped at the sound of his voice, which caused the pills to go flying and scatter all over the bathroom. Justin turned to look at the source of the voice clutching his chest.

“Jesus, JC! You scared the hell out of me!” Justin whispered loudly so as not to wake the other sleeping occupants of the house.

“Sorry,” JC apologized.

“What are you doing up?” Justin asked as he bent down to pick up the spilt aspirin.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. Headache?” JC knelt down next to Justin to help. A minute later they had the pills back into the bottle except for two that Justin immediately swallowed and chased with water.

Justin nodded as he grimaced. JC knew he hated swallowing pills. “Yeah.”

“Are you all right?” JC asked.

“I have a headache. What do you think?”

“I think you’ve been hanging out with Chris too much,” JC joked half-heartedly.

“That was lame, JC.”

JC shrugged. “It’s almost four in the morning.”

“You should be sleeping,” Justin said.

“So should you.” JC paused for a minute before he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“Whatever it is that’s been keeping you up,” JC said.

Justin thought for a minute before he said, “Yes.”

JC tried not to look surprised. It’s not that he didn’t think that Justin would talk to him. He just thought he wouldn’t agree right away. “Well, let’s get out of the bathroom.”

Justin nodded and led JC to his bedroom. JC followed only pausing for a brief second to turn the bathroom light off. Justin sat on his bed and JC shut the door.

“So what’s been keeping you awake?” JC asked.

“I don’t know,” Justin said.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know how to talk about it!” Justin said a little loud.

“OK, calm down. We’ll just take it one thing at a time,” JC said as he sat down next to Justin. He thought for a minute. He was trying to figure out what question he should ask first.

“What woke you up tonight? Your headache?”

“Yeah, that was part of it,” Justin said.

“What was the other part?” JC asked.

Justin paused for a minute, and JC waited patiently. He knew better than to push. A minute later his patience was rewarded with Justin saying, “A nightmare.”

“I get the feeling that this wasn’t the first time you’ve had it,” JC said.

“It wasn’t,” Justin admitted.

“What is it about?” JC asked.

“You already know,” Justin said.

JC looked at Justin in surprise. “What?”

Justin cleared his throat as he looked down at his feet. “I’ve been having your nightmares.”

“What?” JC repeated in shock. He thought he might’ve misheard Justin. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. It’s exactly what you told me your dream was,” Justin said.

“How long have you had this dream?” JC asked quietly.

Justin sighed as he thought. “Over a week.”

“I’m sorry,” JC said. He couldn’t believe that Justin had been having his nightmares. They were so terrible. He would never wish them upon anyone.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault,” Justin told him.

“I know, but I never wanted you to experience what I did,” JC said.

“Why am I having your nightmares?” Justin asked.

“I don’t know,” JC replied.

“Why now? I haven’t had a dream in years,” Justin said.

“I don’t know.”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Justin asked as his voice raised above the low tones they had been talking in.

“I don’t know, Justin!” JC ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He hated not knowing the answers, especially when Justin was freaking out and looking to him for guidance. But he knew that right now the most important thing was to get Justin to calm down and try to get some sleep.

“It’s OK, J. Everything will be all right,” JC said as he put a hand on his shoulder.

Justin pulled away from JC’s touch. “You don’t know that!”

“No, I don’t, but I will find out why this happening,” JC said.

“You promise?” Justin asked with a child-like innocence that JC hadn’t seen in a long time.

“I promise,” JC said. He had no idea how he was going to find out why this was happening, but he knew that he couldn’t let Justin down. He was going to try to figure it out.

JC watched Justin yawn. “You should get some sleep.”

“So should you,” Justin said as he tried to stifle another yawn.

“I will, but I’ve gotten more sleep than you,” JC replied.

“No you haven’t. I saw you up at four last night writing in your notebook,” Justin said.

JC looked surprised. “You did?”

“Yeah.” Justin nodded. “And if I know you, and I like to think I do, you didn’t go to bed for another couple of hours.”

JC looked away from Justin because he knew that he couldn’t deny it. Justin was right, and he knew it too. “What do you write in your notebook?”

“Nothing,” JC said.

“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t stay up all night writing in it,” Justin replied.

JC sighed. “I just write my thoughts in it.”

“Can I read it?” Justin asked.

“No.” JC saw that Justin opened his mouth and said, “And before you ask why, it’s because it’s private. It’s become like my journal.”

“You can talk to me or Chris or Lance,” Justin said.

“I know, but it’s nothing important. If it was, I’d talk to you guys,” JC said.

“All right,” Justin said accepting what JC said…for now anyway. “But I’m going to hold you to that.”

JC nodded. “Get some sleep.”

“You too,” Justin said.

“I will.” JC got up from Justin’s bed. Justin lay down under the covers before JC turned off the light and opened the door. “Good night, J.”

“Good night.”

JC closed the door quietly behind him. He hoped that it would help Justin sleep in tomorrow. He walked back into his room where he grabbed his notebook off of his dresser. Once he had his notebook he went downstairs and into Lance’s study where he turned on a small lamp.

He sat on Lance’s leather couch and opened to the page where he left off. He hadn’t lied when he told Justin his notebook had become like a journal to him. Every night after his rounds he would write in it. Mostly it was whatever his thoughts were at the time. Tonight he was adding his thoughts about Justin having his nightmares.

He was freaked out. He didn’t know how to handle the situation, which killed him because he prided himself on having the answers and taking charge of situations. He just felt awful that Justin was having his nightmares. He felt like it was his fault somehow even though he knew he had no control over what Justin dreamt about.

An hour later JC was done writing and went back upstairs. He checked on each of the guys briefly before heading to his room. Justin had been asleep when he checked on him, which JC was grateful for. Hopefully Justin wouldn’t have another nightmare.

JC lay in bed as he watched the sun rise through the blinds in his room. He heard Lance’s door creak open and knew that Lance was getting ready to start his day. JC found the noise comforting and found himself drifting off to sleep. He seemed to sleep better when he could hear the guys making noise. It made him feel better, especially since he had this pit in his stomach after talking with Justin. He couldn’t help but think that there was a reason all of this was happening.