The blue, sunny sky and white, fluffy clouds signaled another beautiful fall day in Orlando, and the five members of NSYNC were taking advantage of it. Lance had brought his laptop outside with him instead of sitting in the house. His attention was diverted from his computer when splashing and yelling could be heard. For a moment Lance’s heart stopped until he saw the smiles on Justin, Chris, and Joey’s faces and heard the boisterous laughter that followed.

“Watch it, Chris!” Justin yelled, holding his left arm in the air, so the cast wouldn’t get wet, and tried to scowl at his older friend. He wasn’t very successful, but it didn’t matter anyway because Justin lunged at Joey, missing but managing to splash him in the face.

“Hey!” Joey spluttered.

Lance shook his head at their antics. Though, he had to admit that it was nice to see everyone in a good mood, especially Justin. Things hadn’t gone their way last week with everything that’d happened, and Lance knew that it’d been especially hard for Justin since he’d been having visions of things happening before they actually did. But over the past couple of days Justin hadn’t had another vision, which probably attributed to the good mood he was in.

Lance’s eyes traveled downwards towards what he’d been working on when they stopped halfway and fell on JC who was sleeping on a lounge chair next to the pool. It was nice to see JC hanging out with them more. Things had been kind of awkward whenever he came out of his room because no doubt JC was still feeling guilty and kind of uncomfortable after what he’d shared. But Lance was pleased to see that JC was spending more time with them even if he was sleeping. The past couple of days were filled with JC sleeping and recovering from making himself sick, so it didn’t really surprise Lance that JC was taking a nap out in the sunshine.

Returning to his laptop, he continued to go through numerous search pages. While JC had been recovering, Lance had been dedicating his time to finding a way to stop the demons from coming after them. He’d started with a search engine on the Internet, figuring that would be the best place to start, but he was starting to rethink that decision. There were way too many hits, and it didn’t help that he had no idea what he was looking for exactly. Lance let out a frustrated sigh as he left a website with a black background and red text and return to the search results page.

“Problems?”

Lance looked up to see Joey standing next to him dripping wet with a towel around his neck. Immediately he pulled his computer closer to his body and said, “Take a step back.”

“Why?” Joey asked.

“Because you’ll get my computer wet,” Lance said.

Joey rolled his eyes, but took a step back. “How’s it coming?”

“Horrible.” Lance shook his head. He saw the doubtful look Joey was giving him and added, “Yes, it’s that bad. You wouldn’t believe what kind of sites I’ve visited. It’s kind of disturbing.”

“What?”

“There are some sites where people claim to have met all these different demons and that they helped them create their site,” Lance explained, gesturing to the website that he had up.

Joey laughed. “Obviously they’re nuts.”

“Probably, but who’s to say for sure? I mean, we have demons after us.” Lance paused. “But I’m not having any luck. Every time I think I’ve found something that will be useful, it’s actually about summoning them or using protective spells. It’s hard to figure out what’ll actually work and what won’t.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Joey assured.

“Yeah, maybe.” Lance tore his eyes away from the screen to look at him. “But what if I don’t? We have no idea how much time we have before they come to kill JC.”

Joey nodded. “We’ll just have to keep looking. Sooner or later we’ll find something.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Hey, JC,” Justin called. Joey and Lance turned to see that JC was no longer in the lounge chair, but had just settled himself on the edge of the pool, letting his legs rest in the water.

“Have a good nap?” Chris asked.

JC yawned and nodded. “The sun’s warm.”

Joey turned back to Lance as Justin and Chris started splashing each other again with JC hanging out on the side of the pool. “He’s doing better.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “He’s come a long way the past couple days.”

“It’s good to see him up and about instead of sleeping all day,” Joey said. “But he’s still not eating as much as he should be.”

“You have to give it time, Joe. He’s going from not eating anything to eating a couple meals a day. Right now it doesn’t matter that he’s still eating light, just as long he’s doing it.”

When JC had first started to eat after he’d woken up, Lance had been disappointed at how little he’d actually had. But it didn’t take him long to realize that after not eating for two days JC’s stomach must’ve shrunk and couldn’t handle digesting as much food as it used to. That was when Lance decided that he wouldn’t say anything to JC about it as long as he was eating because while he wanted JC to be one hundred percent better, he didn’t want him to push himself and make it worse.

Joey nodded. “You’re right.”

Lance watched as Joey took the towel from his neck and rubbed it over his legs. “You going in?”

“Yeah, I’m done for today.” Joey paused. “I think I’m going to call Kelly.”

Lance wasn’t surprised at hearing this. He knew that Joey would call eventually, just wondered when it would happen. “What are you going to say?”

Joey shrugged, throwing the towel over his left shoulder. “I’m not sure.”

“You’re not going to tell her the truth?” Lance asked.

“No. I’ll just…I want to check in, see how they’re doing, and let her know that I’m staying,” Joey said.

“Well, good luck,” Lance said.

“Thanks.”

Joey walked into the house and gently closed the sliding glass door behind him. He quickly deposited the wet towel into the laundry room right off the kitchen before he made his ascent up the stairs. Briefly he stopped in his room to grab a pair of jeans and a t-shirt to change into. With his clean clothes in hand, he entered the bathroom where he immediately stripped and jumped into the shower.

As Joey scrubbed his body clean from the chlorine smell, his thoughts raced with what he would say to Kelly. It was ridiculous that he was nervous about calling his wife, but he hadn’t talked to her in almost two weeks and knew that she must be pissed. He should’ve called her sooner, but with everything that’d happened last week there hadn’t been any time. But now that things had settled down it was the right opportunity to call. And while part of him was weary about what Kelly would say, the other part of him was excited to hear her voice and find out what’d been going on since he’d been gone.

Joey finished up in the shower and changed. Looking into the mirror quickly he ran a hand through his wet hair and left the bathroom, turning the light off on the way. He walked a couple rooms down the hall and into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him for privacy. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted the guys to hear, especially when he wasn’t sure how it would go.

Grabbing his cell phone off the dresser, he hit speed dial one and listened to the ringing. He could almost imagine what Kelly was doing at that moment. It was early afternoon, which meant that Brianna was still in preschool and Kelly was probably taking advantage of that by cleaning the house. Joey smiled as he pictured her dancing about the house to the radio as she washed the dishes or dusted. But he was pulled out of his thoughts by a click and a soft, “Hello?”

“Hi, Honey,” Joey said.

“Hi, Joey.”

“How are you?” Joey asked.

“I’m fine,” Kelly said.

“That’s good.” Joey paused briefly. “And Brianna?”

“She’s good.” There was a heavy sigh. “What do you want, Joey?”

Joey frowned. “I wanted to see how you were. I miss you.”

“It’s been two weeks. Two weeks that I haven’t seen or heard from you.” She paused. “If you really missed me, you wouldn’t have waited so long to call.”

“I’m sorry. Things have been crazy here, but I really do miss you,” Joey said.

“Then come home,” Kelly said, softly.

Joey shook his head even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” she asked. Joey could hear the disappointment and frustration in her voice.

“Because I’m still needed here,” Joey said.

“You’re needed here,” Kelly corrected. “Brianna misses her daddy.”

“And I miss her, but this is something I have to do.”

Kelly sighed. “You’re still with the guys?”

“Yeah, and I can’t leave them now. We’re in the middle of something.”

“What?” Kelly asked. “What’s so important that you’re there instead of spending time at home with us?”

“I wish I could tell you. Believe me I do, but I can’t,” Joey said. He wished he could tell her the truth about the demons and everything, but he knew that she wouldn’t understand. Not right now anyway when she was upset with him for leaving.

“How come?”

“Some things have been going on here, and I don’t know if they want anyone to know,” Joey answered half truthfully. It was probable that they were going to keep this whole thing with demons being after them to themselves, but there were the other issues like JC relapsing and Justin’s visions that Joey didn’t know if they wanted anyone to know about.

“Is everyone OK?” Kelly asked. Joey half smiled. No matter how mad she was, she didn’t let it affect her concern for the people she cared about. It was one of the reasons he’d married her.

“Everyone’s fine, but I need to stay here for a while to make sure it stays that way.”

Joey could almost see her frown through the phone. “So are you ever coming home?”

“Of course I am,” Joey replied immediately.

“When?”

Joey sighed. “I told you as soon as everything’s settled.”

It hurt having Kelly not trusting him and his intentions. Joey wished he could go home and spend time with her and his daughter. But he knew that he couldn’t do that until this thing with the demons was resolved. And there was no way he could go home for a few days and then leave again because he would be right back to where he was with Kelly being mad at him for taking off. He was convinced that it was in their best interests if he stayed away until this was taken care of.

“I still don’t understand why the guys can’t take care of it,” Kelly said, repeating what she’d said to Joey when they had this conversation the first time that Joey left.

“They’re my friends, Kelly…”

“And we’re your family,” Kelly shot back. “Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Of course,” Joey said.

“Then come home.”

“Kelly…” Joey sighed as he rubbed a hand over his face. He hated arguing with her. “I can’t.”

“Then I don’t want to talk to you. Not unless you’re calling me to tell me you’re coming home,” Kelly said, firmly.

“Kelly, I love you,” Joey started, but was interrupted by Kelly.

“And I love you, but I’m not going to sit here waiting for you to come home and have you calling whenever you feel like it.”

“Kelly…” Joey tried again.

“Good bye, Joey.”

Joey sighed, his heart heavy as he heard a click in his ear. He honestly hadn’t expected anything different, not really. But that didn’t stop it from hurting. All he could do now was help Lance find a way to get rid of the demons. The sooner that was done, the sooner he could go back to his family and fix things with Kelly.

“What’s first?” Lance asked.

Justin looked down at the box in his hand and read, “Brown the meat.”

Chris watched from his seat at the table as Lance nodded and took a large skillet out of one of his cabinets. The ground beef was placed in the skillet and the heat was turned up. They’d all decided they would try to cook a dinner together like they used to when they couldn’t afford to eat out every night. It’d been such a long time since they’d had home cooked food that they were all in the mood for it, but they didn’t want to go all out so they bought Hamburger Helper. They figured it would be an easy dinner to start out with.

“You should add some seasonings,” Joey suggested, leaning against the counter.

Lance looked away from the meat he was stirring to Joey. “Why?”

“To give it flavor,” Joey said.

“I thought it was already supposed to have flavor,” Chris replied. “That’s why it comes with everything pre-made.”

“Yeah, but it never hurts to have a little more.” Joey grabbed some spices off Lance’s spice rack and sprinkled them over the meat.

Once the meat was brown and no pink was visible, Lance dumped the grease out before he turned to Justin for the rest of the directions. “Uh…” Justin looked down at the box again. “Throw all the ingredients in and bring it to a boil before letting it simmer.”

Lance nodded and began to follow Justin’s instructions. He looked up as he was pouring the milk into the skillet and said, “Someone can set the table while I’m doing this.”

“I will,” JC volunteered, rising from where he was seated across Chris to grab plates and glasses. Joey went over to the silverware drawer to help.

Chris was glad to see that JC wasn’t holing himself up in his room. That afternoon had been nice and he was glad that JC hadn’t missed out on it. Even though he did sleep most of the time, Chris had been pleasantly surprised when JC woke up and sat by the pool while he and Justin goofed off. Sure he didn’t join them, but at least he made the initiative to sit and watch them without being asked. That was a definite improvement from the last few days.

“I talked to Johnny today,” Lance said, taking up Joey’s position leaning on the counter as he waited for the food to finish cooking.

“What’d he have to say?” Chris asked.

“He told us that we have two more months off.”

JC looked up. “Really?”

“Yeah, it’s not like we have anything to do. The tour’s done so there’s nothing scheduled,” Lance said.

“If there’s nothing scheduled, then why don’t we have more months off?” Justin asked.

“We have that meeting.” Joey looked up at Lance from where he was placing the forks next to the plates as he and JC moved around the table. “Right?”

“What meeting?” Chris questioned as Lance nodded his head. He couldn’t remember any mention of a meeting, but that wasn’t saying much. Normally he never knew when their meetings were. The only reason he never showed up late was because Lance would always remind him.

“The one where we sit down with Johnny and decide what we want to do next,” Lance said, turning the burner off and spooning the food into a big bowl. Joey and JC took their seats having finished setting the table.

“What do we want to do?” Chris asked. It was weird to think about something so far off in the future when they weren’t even sure if they would be able to get rid of the demons. There was a possibility that that they would have to go into hiding or something from the demons. Chris shook his head to get rid of the ridiculous thought. They would find a way to keep that from happening.

“I want to get back into the studio.” Justin glance at JC and added, “JC and I had been working on some new songs while on tour.”

“I didn’t know that,” Lance said, looking at JC as he placed the bowl Hamburger Helper in the center of the table. Joey started to dish some onto his plate first.

JC shrugged, scooping a smaller amount than what Joey got onto his plate. “You know me. Always writing.”

“Well, recording sounds good to me,” Joey agreed around a mouthful of food. “I’m tired of touring.”

Chris wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Manners, Joey.”

“So we agree about going back in the studio?” Lance asked.

“I thought we didn’t have to decide right now,” Chris said.

“Well, that’s true.” Lance gave Chris a curious look. “Don’t you want to go into the studio?”

“It doesn’t matter to me. I have no problems sticking around Orlando,” Chris replied, after taking a bite. His plate was almost empty already and he scooped some more onto his plate. Before he dropped the spoon back into the bowl he asked JC, “You want some more?”

JC shook his head. “I’m good.”

“What about you, JC?” Lance asked, focusing his attention from Chris to him.

“What about me?”

“Do you want to go back into the studio?” Justin asked, repeating Lance.

“If I’m still alive then sure,” JC muttered.

Chris and the others looked at him in surprise. They hadn’t expected him to say that. “JC!”

“What? It’s true. In case you’ve forgotten, I have demons trying to kill me,” JC said.

“Yeah, but we’re going to stop them. Nothing’s going to happen, and you better stop thinking like that,” Chris threatened. “We’re going to figure this out. Together.”

JC sighed, but didn’t argue. Chris was furious that JC had said what he did. He knew from their talk after JC’s relapse that he was feeling guilty about everything that’d happened, but he had no reason to be. They’d even told him so. But he must not have been listening then or when they said they were going to figure this out. This just made Chris all that more determined to get to the bottom of this and prove JC wrong.