Time seemed to creep by slowly. Joey watched the grandfather clock in Lance’s dining room swing its pendulum back and forth, filling the room with the sounds of ticking like an arithmetic heartbeat. He sighed softly as he looked down at the chair he was sitting in and continued to trace the intricate design on the arm as he tried to calm his nerves.

It had been decided yesterday after Lance and JC had been taken care of and left in their rooms that they would go ahead with having the therapist come. Joey had no idea what to expect from this because he still didn’t know how JC was going to handle being forced into talking to a stranger. But he was also worried about Justin. They had yet to tell Justin that the therapist would be talking to him too. Joey hoped he wouldn't be too upset when he found out.

Joey knew that this would be good for both Justin and JC in the long run. Yesterday he had had his doubts about whether or not it was necessary for JC to have a session, but once he saw him sitting in the rain, and later hearing about how out of it he had been from Justin, he was convinced that it might be necessary after all. There was obviously something that was still bothering JC that he felt he couldn’t share with the rest of them. However, Joey was sure whatever JC had been thinking was pushed aside once he found out Lance had become sicker.

That was yet another thing that Joey had to worry about. He had no reason to believe that Lance had anything more than the flu except for how fast it had come on. It had seemed like he was getting better and then quicker than the drop of a hat, he had become sicker. Joey wondered how Lance was doing. Hopefully better than last night because he still had been really out of it when he went to check on him before he went to bed. One thing that he knew for sure was that Lance was in good hands; Joey had seen JC walk into his room earlier and knew that he was probably taking care of him.

He wished he could do something to help Lance, but he had accepted that there was nothing he could really do. A few hours ago he had called Kelly to let her know that he would be home later that evening. He wanted to be here when the therapist arrived. Joey wasn’t sure how comfortable he was leaving since so much had happened the past few days, but at the same time he knew that he had to go home to spend time with his family.

Joey leaned on the table and became aware that the table was shaking. He looked over to see Justin’s leg bouncing as he sat on the table. The shaking made him realize that Justin was just as nervous as he was, so he reached out to try to calm him down. When Joey’s hand made contact with his thigh, Justin looked over at Joey and the shaking stopped.

“Sorry,” he said. Justin watched as Joey just nodded and went back to tracing the armrest on his chair. He had to make a conscious effort to keep himself from shaking his leg. It wasn’t so much that he was nervous about what was going to happen, but more that he was impatient. The therapist was supposed to show up in ten minutes and it seemed like he had been waiting for an hour rather than five minutes.

Justin knew that JC wasn’t going to be happy when the therapist showed up and would probably do whatever he could to get out of it. He understood that the guys were concerned. After JC’s escapade in the rain yesterday, Justin had to admit that he was concerned too. But forcing him to talk to someone he didn’t even know was a huge mistake. JC had never been an open book when it came to talking about his feelings, and this was only going to irritate him.

He rubbed his forehead gently. Thinking about this was making his headache worse. An hour ago he had taken some aspirin, but it didn’t seem to be helping. In fact, aspirin never alleviated his headaches anymore. Maybe it was because he had started to take it more often than usual because he always seemed to have one even if it was just a dull throb.

Just then the grandfather clock chimed two times. Justin looked over at Chris who was sitting by the window and saw that he had risen from his seat. That must have meant that the therapist had arrived. Chris turned to look at Justin and Joey.

“Go get him,” he said. Justin nodded as he jumped off Lance’s dining room table and Joey rose from his seat. Together they left the room to go upstairs to retrieve JC.

Chris walked out of the dining room and into the foyer. He opened the door before his friend even had a chance to ring the doorbell. They hugged and it was when Chris pulled away that he noticed how much his friend had changed since college. He looked more like a psychologist with his black dress pants and white collar shirt. Chris almost couldn’t believe this was the same person who had worn baggy jeans and sweatshirts. His glasses made him look more distinguished, especially since he cut off the long hair he had sported when Chris had last seen him.

“Hey, Derek. Thanks for coming.”

“Anything for an old friend,” Derek said, walking through the door that Chris held open.

“I figured I would set you up in Lance’s office. Is that all right?” Chris asked.

Derek shrugged. “That’s fine.” Chris showed him into Lance’s office. “So who am I going to be talking to first?”

“JC. But I have to warn you…I don’t know how he’s going to react to you being here,” Chris confessed. He was nervous because he wanted everything to go smoothly and that all depended on how JC reacted. If JC didn’t freak, it was likely that Justin wouldn’t either.

“I can handle it,” Derek assured him.

Before Chris could reply, JC walked into the room with Joey and Justin behind him. JC had a confused look on his face when he spotted Derek. Chris noticed this and jumped in to introduce them.

“JC, this is my friend Derek,” Chris said.

“Hi,” JC said slowly as he tentatively shook Derek’s hand.

“Nice to meet you,” Derek replied.

“Derek’s a psychologist,” Chris added.

“OK.” JC knew what was going on here. Derek was brought here to talk to him. “Can I talk to you guys for a sec?”

JC turned around and walked out of the study and into the living room. The other three excused themselves and followed him. They walked into the living room to find JC standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face.

“You brought a psychologist to talk to me?” he asked in disbelief.

“You need to talk to someone, JC,” Joey said.

“No, I don’t.” JC shook his head. “Therapy is for crazy people. I’m not crazy.”

“Well, you’re sure acting like it,” Chris muttered.

“Chris,” Justin warned.

“I’m not crazy,” JC repeated.

“Oh, I think you are. You have this insane idea that the demons are after us again,” Chris said, ignoring Justin’s warning.

“Chris,” Justin said sharper this time.

Chris continued as if he hadn’t heard him. “You’re letting it consume you and you are about this close,” Chris spread his finger and thumb less than an inch apart, “from going completely nuts.”

“Chris!” Justin stepped over to JC and pulled on his arm. He gently led JC out into the hallway.

“You think I’m crazy,” JC spat.

“No, I don’t.” Justin shook his head. “You’re not crazy and I don’t think you need to talk to this guy.”

“You don’t?” JC asked as he dropped his arms to his sides. He hoped what Justin was saying was true because he hated that they thought he was crazy.

“No. I’m on your side, JC. I tried to get you out of it, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. Just go in there, talk to the guy, tell him what he wants to hear, and you won’t have to do anything like this again,” Justin said.

JC sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

He walked down the hall and into Lance’s study where Derek was sitting in a chair next to the couch. After pulling the door shut behind him, he lingered by the door. There was nothing JC wanted more than to run out that door and not talk to this guy, but he knew that wasn’t an option if he wanted the guys to stop hounding him.

“Why don’t you have a seat, JC?” Derek suggested as he watched JC stand by the door.

JC nodded and walked over to the couch to sit down on it. He sat tensely on the edge of the cushion at first, but forced himself to relax back against the cushion behind him.

“So how are you doing?” Derek asked.

“Fine,” JC said. He was going to do what Justin said by answering this guy’s questions and getting out of there as soon as possible.

“Have you been enjoying your break?”

JC nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well, what have you been doing for fun?” Derek asked as he wrote in the notebook that he held in his lap. JC hated that this Derek guy was taking notes on him. It made him feel like a test subject in an experiment.

“Basketball, writing, sleeping,” JC said simply.

Derek sighed. “How do you feel about me being here? I take it from your expression that you’re less than thrilled.”

“It’s nothing personal,” JC said. “I just don’t think I need this.”

“Then why are your friends so worried about you?”

“They overreact. They treat me like a freaking child. I skip one meal and they act like I have an eating disorder.”

Derek laughed lightly before he became serious again. “Chris tells me that you’re not sleeping enough either.”

JC rolled his eyes. “I get plenty of sleep. I just do it in the morning instead of at night.”

“Why do you do that?”

JC hesitated before admitting, “I…I’m a little…afraid of the dark.” JC looked up at Derek and quickly added, “But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Does your fear of the dark have something to do with what happened?”

“No,” JC lied.

Derek paused before he asked gently, “Do you want to tell me what happened that night your friends were mugged?”

“Mugged?” JC repeated. What the hell had Chris told this guy? Obviously the truth wasn’t an option because no one would believe them, so he must’ve come up with some scenario. He just wished that Chris would’ve told him so he wouldn’t have been caught off guard like this.

“Chris told me that you and Justin were the ones to find them. What did that feel like?”

“How do you think it felt?”

“I’m sure it must’ve been horrible. But the guys who did it…they were sent to jail, right?” Derek asked.

JC reasoned that in the analogy Chris had created for Derek the guys going to jail must be equivalent with the demons being sent back to hell. “Yeah,” he admitted begrudgingly.

“What is it about the dark that scares you?”

JC would lay in bed every night thinking about the demons. He hated sleeping in the dark because it made it hard to see if there were things lurking in the shadows. Recently he had been reminded of what happened last time he had been caught off guard and had almost been smothered to death by Katrina, and he didn’t want anything like that to happen again. Darkness seemed to bring out his worst fear because it seemed that was when all of the bad things happened to them. JC would lie awake listening to the creepy silence of the house that didn’t seem to disappear until daylight broke and he could hear the guys fighting over the bathroom, and he would jump at every little noise in fear that the demons had returned.

Derek waited for an answer, but a few minutes passed in silence. “What’s your relationship with your friends like?”

“They’re like my brothers,” JC said, relaxing a little. He could handle talking about the guys. It was almost like he was doing another interview for a magazine.

“What about Justin? I hear that you’re especially close with him.”

“I’ve known him since he was a kid.”

“So you look out for him?”

JC nodded. “Yeah, but the rest of the guys too.”

“It must’ve affected you when Justin collapsed, right?” Derek asked.

“It affected all of us.”

Derek nodded. “Of course, but you especially, right?”

JC remembered when he had been in the living room and heard Joey frantically calling for them. Seeing Justin’s still form on the ground had scared him, but it had made him feel guilty too. His first thought had been that he didn’t help Justin like he should have, and that if maybe he had then Justin wouldn’t have collapsed. Then when he came to and mentioned that he had seen some things while he was out, JC knew at that moment that this was a lot bigger than he originally thought and that was when he reasoned that the demons must be the cause behind everything that had happened.

“I failed him.”

“Why do you think that?”

“He came to me with a problem and asked me to fix it,” JC said. He lowered his eyes to the carpet. “And I couldn’t.”

“There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, JC. We can’t handle all of our problems alone,” Derek replied.

“But he asked me to keep it a secret and I betrayed him.”

“How did you betray him?”

JC sighed as he fiddled with his hands. “I was talking to Chris and tipped him off that Justin had a problem.”

“You told Chris because you care about Justin and you wanted what was best for him,” Derek reasoned.

“That’s not how Justin saw it,” JC said. “He felt like I betrayed him. Not that I blame him.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t feel that way.” Derek paused. “But I won’t know for sure until I talk to him.”

“You’re talking to him too?” JC asked looking surprised. He had figured that the guys called Derek to talk to him. But then again they had talked about how they thought Justin needed therapy.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Yes!” JC said exasperated. “He doesn’t need therapy.”

“You’re friends must think he does. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“You’re here because I couldn’t come up with a solution.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Did they expect you to?”

JC nodded, remembering what Chris had said to him in the kitchen. “Yes. I’m always the one who fixes their problems, and they blame me for not being able to help Justin,” JC said softly.

“You can’t fix everything, JC.”

“I have to try. What if there was something I could’ve done and I did nothing?”

“You can’t keep playing this game. It’s going to kill you. If Joey were to suddenly get into a car accident 5,000 miles away from where you were, there is nothing you could’ve done to help him,” Derek said.

“No.” JC stood up from the couch and began to pace around the room. “There’s always something I can do.”

“Listen to me, JC. There are some things that are out of your control and will happen no matter what. A robber could break into Chris’ house and shoot him.”

“No!” JC tried the doorknob as his heart began to race and found that it had been locked from the outside. His eyes darted around the room. He wanted out and he wanted out now. He couldn’t handle this stranger talking about all these bad things happening to his friends, saying there was nothing he could do about it.

“Yes. You can always rationalize a way to place the blame on yourself. ‘If only I had gotten there sooner.’ ‘If only I called him sooner.’ You can’t go by what if. Lance could get hit by a bus,” Derek said.

“Stop it!” JC yelled as he blindly reached out to grab an item off Lance’s desk and hurled it at the mirror. The glass paperweight collided with the mirror and both shattered into a million pieces.

Derek got up from where he was sitting and tried to put a hand on JC’s shoulder to calm him down, but it had the opposite effect. JC yanked his body away from Derek and roughly pushed him at the same time. Derek stood there in shock.

JC was trapped inside his mind. All he could think about was what had happened that night over two months ago. Derek mentioning all of those situations brought about his worst fear about the guys being hurt, which automatically brought him back to his nightmares. He saw the demons crouch over Lance’s body. He saw them abandon his cold, dead body and attack Joey. He watched the demons attack his friends one after the other and saw their lifeless eyes staring back at him. He couldn’t take anymore and he felt his legs give out and landed roughly on his knees as he began to sob uncontrollably.

He could vaguely hear the click of the door being unlocked and voices, but they sounded so distant. Suddenly a warm body was pressed up against him and began to whisper something in his ear. In his hazy mind, he could’ve sworn that the person who was holding him was Justin. JC gripped him tightly as he continued to cry.

Joey, Chris, and Justin sat in silence in the living room as they waited for Derek and JC to finish talking. It was easy to see that each of them was wrapped up in their own thoughts. Sick of the silence and wanting to take their minds off of it, Joey spoke up, “Did you guys notice that the bathroom sink upstairs clogs?”

“What?” Justin asked in confusion.

“The sink. It takes forever for the water to drain,” Joey said.

“And you’re bringing this up now because…” Chris replied.

Joey shrugged. “Seemed as good a time as any.”

Chris opened his mouth to reply when they heard a loud crash come from Lance’s office. The three of them barely glanced at each other before they ran down the hall and hurriedly moved the chair that had been propped up against the door. They walked into the room only to stop in shock when they took in the scene in front of them.

Lance’s antique mirror that hung on the wall next to his desk was on the floor in tiny pieces along with bigger pieces of glass that Joey recognized as Lance’s paperweight. Joey was a little afraid by this because JC was known for having a temper once he was pushed far enough and the broken mirror was indication that he had been. Joey’s eyes scanned the room for JC and saw that he was on the floor in front of Lance’s desk with his head in his hands and his shoulders shaking with his sobs. Derek didn’t seem to know what to do because he was a good ten feet away from JC and wasn’t making any attempt to approach him. Immediately Justin ran over to where JC was kneeling and wrapped his arms around him to pull him into a hug.

“What happened?” Chris asked as he turned to Derek.

Joey was torn between running over to help Justin calm JC down and staying to find out what caused JC to completely lose it. In the end he decided he would listen to what Derek had to say because he knew that whatever happened had to have been bad if it caused JC to break down like he had.

“I must’ve triggered something,” Derek said, tearing his eyes away from JC to focus on Chris.

“What? What did you trigger?” Derek didn’t answer and Chris pressed. “What did you talk about?”

“I can’t tell you. Patient confidentiality, Chris.”

“Screw patient confidentiality! I want to know what you said to upset him this much!”

Derek sighed. “I made up some hypothetical situations where you guys died.”

Chris’ eyes widened. “You what! What good did you think could possibly come of that?”

“I wanted to show him that some things are out of his control. I was trying to help him,” Derek said.

“Well, you did a good job with that,” Chris said sarcastically. “All you’ve done is make him worse.”

“I can still help him. Just give me a little more time and-“

“No,” Chris said, cutting Derek off. “You’re done here. You’re never talking to him again.”

“If you give me a chance I can fix it,” Derek said.

Chris shook his head. “No. We’ll fix it.” He paused for a minute as his eyes wandered over to JC who was still crying in Justin’s arms before he turned back to Derek. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Derek nodded. He walked across the room to leave, but stopped at the doorway and turned to look at his old friend. “Chris, I’m sorry.”

“Get out,” Chris said. Derek turned back around and walked out of the room. Joey heard the front door close and knew that Derek had left. He almost felt sorry for the guy, but it was Derek’s fault for making JC so upset and Joey was pissed. But if he was honest with himself he would have to admit that he was looking for someone to blame other than himself because it was always easier to place the blame on someone else. He felt responsible for pushing the idea of JC needing therapy and he was certainly kicking himself for it now.

Joey focused his attention on JC and Justin who were still on the floor. Justin had managed to get JC to calm down a great deal, but he was still crying. He thought about going over to them, but knew that Justin was taking care of JC and didn’t want to crowd him. Chris and him awkwardly stood there, wanting to help but not sure how. They silently decided that it was better to let Justin handle it. A minute passed before Justin stood up and helped JC to his feet before wrapping his left arm around JC’s shoulders.

“I’m going to put him to bed,” Justin told Joey and Chris as he passed them. The two of them nodded and watched as Justin walked JC out of the room.

Joey turned to Chris. “You were a little harsh with Derek, don’t you think?”

“Are you kidding me? You saw what he did to JC!” Chris exclaimed.

“Yeah, but I still think you could’ve handled it better,” Joey said. Chris had a bad temper with a short fuse, especially where they were concerned. He tended to act first and think later. Joey knew that he would later regret what he had said to Derek, but he needed to cool down first.

“I handled it just fine,” Chris said. Joey nodded and silence filled the room.

A minute later Joey decided to change the subject. “So…what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know,” Chris admitted.

“Well, we need to come up with something,” Joey said.

Chris nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He thought for a minute before he said, “Maybe I could take him clubbing.”

“How would that help?” Joey asked.

“It would make him relax and forget for a while,” Chris said.

Joey was about to reply when Justin came into the room looking pissed. He pointed at Chris. “I told you this was a bad idea!”

“I didn’t know this was going to happen!” Chris defended himself.

“No,” Justin conceded, “but you didn’t even consider other options. You just said ‘This is what we’re doing’.”

“Well, I didn’t see you offering any suggestions. Besides leaving him alone, which would’ve landed us right back to where we were a month ago!” Chris replied.

“I just want what’s best for JC,” Justin said.

“And I don’t?” Chris replied.

“Apparently not or else you wouldn’t have made him see a shrink,” Justin shot back.

Chris glared at him and was about to respond when Joey spoke up, “All right, guys. That’s enough. We’re going to need to help JC through this and you two fighting isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Sorry,” Justin apologized to Joey, but he was looking at Chris.

“I’m sorry too,” Chris said.

“Good. Now what are we going to do about JC?” Joey asked. “Chris was saying that he could maybe take JC to a club.”

“That’s not a bad idea. Maybe it would help if he got out and let go of things,” Justin said.

“It’s worth a try,” Joey said before he turned to Chris. “So when are you going to take him out?”

“I don’t know. Tonight maybe,” Chris replied.

“You don’t think that’s too soon?” Justin asked. “I mean, today was pretty eventful for him.”

“Well, he’s resting now, right?” Justin nodded and Chris continued, “Then he’ll be good to go tonight. We can’t let him stew over what happened for too long.”

“I guess you’re right,” Justin said.

“I want to go with you,” Joey told Chris.

“No, you should get home and spend some time with Kelly and Brianna,” Justin said.

“But what about JC…and Lance?” JC’s freak out was a big deal by itself, but then on top of that Lance being sick just added to everything. Joey was worried that it would be too much for Justin and Chris to handle, especially since they seemed to be on edge with each other. But then Justin shouldn’t be getting himself worked up over everything because he was supposed to be relaxing and he wouldn’t be able to do that if Chris took JC out clubbing since he would have to take care of Lance. He was worried about Justin taking on too much and becoming stressed again because he didn’t want a repeat of yesterday. That had been scary and wasn’t something he wanted to deal with again.

“We’ve got it covered,” Justin said. “Seriously, man, go home. We’ll call you if anything else happens, all right?”

“All right,” Joey agreed reluctantly. “I guess I’ll hit the road, but I’m going to check on Lance first.”

Chris and Justin just nodded. Joey walked upstairs and made a left to enter Lance’s bedroom. He was lying on his back awake, which surprised Joey. Considering how sick he’d been last night and this morning, Joey thought he’d be sleeping. It didn’t seem like he had gotten any of his color back either; his skin was still very pale. A few steps were all it took for him to reach Lance’s bedside.

“How you doing, Lance?”

“Joey? Why aren’t we in the studio? We have that new song to record today,” Lance said quietly. Joey frowned, upset that Lance was still really out of it.

“No we don’t. It was moved back to tomorrow,” Joey told him. He wasn’t even trying to correct Lance anymore because last night he had tried to explain to him that they were on a break, but Lance hadn’t been able to comprehend it. Now Joey just played along with whatever he said. What Joey thought was really weird was that Lance seemed to be going backwards in time. They hadn’t recorded anything in over six months.

“Oh,” was all Lance said. Joey shook his head as he tousled Lance’s hair.

“I’ll see you later, Lance.” Joey shut the door behind him and grabbed his stuff in the bedroom where he had stayed before he walked downstairs where he found Justin and Chris in the living room. They looked up as he walked in.

“Are you leaving?” Justin asked, already rising from the couch. Chris stood up from the arm of the couch that he had been sitting on.

Joey nodded. “Yeah. I know when I’m not wanted.”

Chris laughed as he clapped him on the shoulder. “What can I say, man? You smell.”

“Gee, thanks,” Joey muttered but smiled. It didn’t last long though and he grew serious. “You guys better call me if anything else happens.”

“Don’t worry, Joe. We got it covered,” Justin said.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you guys later then,” Joey told them.

“Tell Bri her Uncle Chris says hi and that next time he comes over he’s bringing her some candy,” Chris said, pulling away from Joey who laughed.

“We’ll talk to you soon,” Justin said as he hugged Joey.

Joey pulled away and nodded. “You better. All right, I guess I’m out of here.” Justin and Chris walked him to the front door and waved at him as he pulled out of the driveway.

Joey shook his head as he thought about everything that had happened earlier. It seemed like it was one thing after another. First Justin collapsed, then Lance got sick, and today JC lost it during a therapy session. That had been scary because Joey had never seen JC lose control of his emotions like that in all the years he had known him. JC normally had good control over his emotions. Joey wanted to know what exactly those hypothetical situations were that made JC so upset, but he wasn’t sure if he would ever know because JC probably wouldn’t share that information with anyone.