Joey rushed down the hallway that was almost glaringly white from the florescent light bulbs overhead. His eyes bounced back and forth across the hallway, frantically searching for the room the nurse said JC was in. Briefly he glanced to his right and saw that Lance and Justin were doing the same thing. Returning his attention to the room numbers, Joey mentally ticked them off in his head as he passed them. 105…107…109…111…

Pulling up short so he wouldn’t slam into the back of Justin, Joey looked at the little plate on the wall next to the door Justin had stopped in front of. Room 113. They’d found it. JC was just beyond the door. Joey stepped forward to open the door when the metal doorknob twisted on its own accord. The door opened to reveal a middle-aged nurse that was dressed in purple scrubs.

“Are you here to see Mr. Chasez?” she asked.

Joey nodded. “We’re his friends.”

“Well, if it’s all right, I’d like a word with you before you go in to see him,” the nurse said.

“Is everything all right? Is JC OK?” Justin asked, his forehead creased with worry.

“Physically, yes,” the nurse assured as she motioned for them to move a few feet to the right so they weren’t blocking the doorway. “We’re more concerned about his mental state.”

Lance frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He came into the ER with a three inch laceration across his left palm that’s not consistent with the car accident. The infected cut was treated and he’ll need a tetanus shot, but currently we’re concerned that he purposely inflicted the wound on himself. In which case, we’d have one of our psychologists come down to evaluate him,” the nurse explained.

“That’s not necessary. JC isn’t a cutter,” Joey said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to believe those closest to us could do something so horrible,” she replied.

Justin shook his head vehemently. “It was an accident. He was washing the dishes and accidentally grabbed a hold of a knife.”

“Why didn’t you just bring him here then?” she asked.

“Because we didn’t think it was that serious,” Lance said, going along with Justin’s story. But Joey noticed the corners of his mouth turned down in a frown and knew that he didn’t appreciate Justin trying to help by making up a lame excuse.

The nurse frowned at them, clearly not believing it. “A psychiatric evaluation still might be a good idea.”

“Thanks, but we’ve got it covered,” Joey assured. “We’re living together, so we’ll keep an eye on him.”

Joey couldn’t help but think about the irony of that because they wouldn’t be in this situation if they’d kept an eye on JC to begin with. Next to him, Justin began to bounce impatiently on the balls of his feet. They’d been delayed from seeing their friend long enough and it was clear that Justin was out of patience.

“Can we see him now?” Justin asked.

“Sure,” the nurse smiled at him slightly. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to give him his tetanus shot.”

Lance nodded and together the three of them walked into JC’s room. Immediately their eyes fell on their friend who was sitting on an examination table. JC was leaning forward with his arms resting on his thighs and was staring at the floor. Just like the nurse said, the palm of his left hand was wrapped in brown gauze. There also was a scratch under his right eye and a few nicks across his cheeks, but nothing that looked serious.

“Thank God,” Justin breathed to himself before rushing to JC’s side. Joey felt the same relief as Justin because while they’d known beforehand that JC was fine it was easier to believe when they could see for themselves.

“Are you all right?” Justin asked.

“Have you heard anything about Chris?” Joey asked, coming up to stand on JC’s left, directly opposite from Justin.

Joey noticed Justin frown when ten seconds passed and there was no answer from JC to any of their questions, and he did the same. It was worrisome that JC hadn’t said a word to them, but he hadn’t even raised his head or even acknowledged them either. It was disconcerting and the worry lines on Justin’s forehead increased.

“JC?” Justin asked, cautiously. As Joey waited with bated breath to see whether or not JC would respond, he mentally berated himself and Justin bombarding him with questions. He couldn’t even imagine how terrifying that car accident had to have been.

“He’s not in any condition to answer questions,” a voice said from behind them.

The three of them turned around to see a man in a white coat, presumably the doctor, standing in the back. They’d been so focused on seeing JC that they hadn’t realized there was someone else in the room.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked, standing in JC’s line of vision but a few feet back. Joey figured it was probably to make him feel less crowded and with that thought in mind, he took a step to his right to put more distance between him and JC.

“He’s suffering from a mild case of shock,” the doctor explained.

Justin frowned. “From what?”

“Most likely the car accident. It’s not uncommon for patients to experience some form of shock despite the severity of their injuries. Shock is the body’s way of dealing with unexpected events.”

“So he’s going to be OK?” Joey asked. His attention was diverted from the doctor when the nurse they’d talk to earlier came back into the room carrying a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

The doctor nodded his approval to the nurse and she stepped up to JC. Joey backed up a little further to give her room to work. He watched as she rolled up the sleeve of his t-shirt and wiped the area with a damp cotton ball.

“He’s going to be just fine,” the doctor assured, causing them to glance back at him before refocusing their attention on JC. “Once he has received his tetanus shot, he’s free to go. I’ve already got the release papers prepared and a prescription you need to get filled for antibiotics to kill the infection in his hand.”

Joey nodded and watched as the nurse pressed the needle against JC’s skin until the tip was no longer visible. Involuntarily he winced for JC, knowing how much JC hated needles. But Joey was shocked to see that JC hadn’t even flinched or squeezed the hand that Justin had placed into his own. That wasn’t normal behavior for JC and it was then that Joey recognized how similar this situation was to the time JC’d gone into shock after Justin had been kidnapped. Hopefully this time it wouldn’t become as dangerous.

“All done,” the nurse said with a small smile as she patted JC on the shoulder and unrolled his sleeve.

“What about our other friend? How’s he?” Lance asked.

“The name’s Christopher Kirkpatrick?” the doctor asked and Lance nodded. “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss his condition since I’m not the attending doctor. However, I’ll take you to a private waiting room.”

“Thank you,” Joey said.

The doctor nodded. “But first, one of you needs to sign this release form since Mr. Chasez isn’t up to it at the moment.”

Wordlessly Lance stepped forward and accepted the clipboard and prescription that was handed to him. He signed his signature on the line indicated and gave it back to the doctor while pocketing the slip of paper that had the doctor’s messy scrawl of the prescription they’d have to get filled. The doctor glanced at the release form briefly before he nodded and gestured toward the door.

“If you’ll just follow me, I’ll take you to the waiting room.”

Justin put a hand on JC’s back and gently helped him off the examination table he’d been sitting on. Together they walked out the door behind the doctor while Joey and Lance brought up the rear. It was a short walk down the hall before they entered a fairly small room with two couches, a small coffee table, and a couple of oversized chairs.

“Someone will be in to fill you in on your friend’s condition,” the doctor said before he left the room and closed the door behind him.

Time elapsed so slowly that Lance was sure that it must’ve been moving backwards. He glanced down at his watch and sighed, letting his body sink even further into the oversized chair. They’d been waiting in this room for over two hours and he was getting worried. When he’d first found out about Chris’s condition just before one in the afternoon, he’d been informed that Chris was in surgery. And since they hadn’t heard anything, Lance was left to assume that Chris was still in surgery. That concerned him because it meant that things must be worse than he initially thought.

Glancing to his left, he felt the knot that had formed in his stomach twist. JC was tucked into the end of the couch by the window with Justin sitting next to him, but he’d yet to say a word. Lance couldn’t really say that he was surprised because he’d had an inkling that JC wasn’t completely there from the feeling he’d gotten on the way to the hospital in the car. Not to mention that JC had a habit of blaming himself and was probably doing just that.

A thump sounded and seemed to echo throughout the still room. Lance looked across the room to see Joey had just thrown the magazine he’d been rifling through onto the table in front of him. The waiting was really starting to grate on their nerves. Whoever said that no news was good news had never experienced sitting in a waiting room to learn the condition of a friend or family member.

The door clicked before it swung open. Lance immediately snapped his head in that direction and felt his heart rate increase at the sight of a doctor in green scrubs with a white mask hanging around his neck. It looked like he just came out of surgery.

“You’re here for Christopher Kirkpatrick, right?” he asked.

“Yes,” Justin replied.

“My name’s Matt Shrike and I was the lead surgeon in the operating room.”

“How’s Chris?” Joey asked.

“I wish I didn’t have to tell you this,” Doctor Shrike said, sighing. Lance could swear that he felt the knot in his stomach tighten to the point that he thought for sure he was having an ulcer. Good news never followed words like that, and Lance noted through the doctor’s graying hair that he probably had a lot of experience breaking bad news to families and friends.

“Just say it,” Lance said, softly.

Doctor Shrike nodded. “Mr. Kirkpatrick received a severe impact to his left side, which resulted in internal bleeding. We rushed him into surgery where we managed to repair the damage. However, he also suffered a serious blow to the head.

“Individually both of the injuries are dangerous, but together they are extremely so. As a result, Mr. Kirkpatrick has fallen into a coma,” he explained.

“A coma?” Lance repeated, shocked.

“I’m afraid so.” Doctor Shrike paused. “At this moment, there is no way to tell if or when he’ll wake up.”

Lance felt his world fall away. He didn’t even register that Joey got up and swiftly left the room. All he could focus on was the doctor’s word resounding in his head. A coma. It was hard to wrap his head around because while he’d expected bad news, he hadn’t figured it was going to be that bad.

Suddenly he felt anger rise up in him and his shock melted away. If Chris and JC had just listened to him and not left the house like he said, then they wouldn’t be in this position. Chris shouldn’t have driven. Lance had given him explicit directions not to and he didn’t care what his reason was. Nothing warranted putting his life in danger.

But JC was just as much to blame. He should’ve stopped Chris. Forced him to stay home. Talked him out of leaving. Something. JC knew what the dangers were just as much as Chris did. And even if he did fight Chris, he should’ve fought harder. A pissed off Chris would’ve been better and easier to deal with than a comatose one.

Lance took a deep breath and felt the anger subside, leaving him feeling empty. He couldn’t believe that he was just blaming his comatose friend and feeling angry at him. As far as Lance knew, he might never see Chris awake again.

And he couldn’t even bring himself to continue to feel angry at JC because he was in what seemed like a deep shock. Lance wasn’t even sure if JC would snap out of this one because he couldn’t begin to imagine how JC must be feeling. He knew how JC took the littlest things that happened to them to heart, so he could easily believe that feeling had been multiplied tenfold. The last thing he wanted was to lose two of his friends, but right now it wasn’t looking too promising.

A loud, gut wrenching sob snapped Lance out of his reverie. His eyes flicked over to his left and saw Justin with his head in his hands, his whole body shaking from the force of his sobs. Lance wanted nothing more than to join Justin, but he realized that he had to keep it together. All of them couldn’t fall to pieces. One of them had to be rational and in control.

With that in mind, Lance rose from the chair and moved over to the couch. Gently, he gathered Justin into his arms so his head was resting on his shoulder. “Chris is a fighter. He’ll pull through this,” Lance said, running a hand through Justin’s curls to try to soothe him.

As Justin continued to cry and clutch at the back of his shirt, Lance looked over his head and glanced around the room. His heart skipped a beat when he didn’t see Joey. He didn’t remember Joey leaving, but then again he didn’t remember seeing the doctor leave either. Lance briefly wondered if he should try to find Joey, but quickly decided not to. Clearly Joey was upset and probably wanted some time alone to deal.

As Justin’s sobs quieted, Lance gently pulled them to rest against the back of the couch. He kept his arms wrapped around Justin and wondered how long it would be before someone came back in. Lance wished he’d paid more attention to the doctor before he left to see if he’d said anything about Chris being placed into a room and when they could see him.

It turned out that Doctor Shrike came back into see them after time had dragged on for what felt like years rather than the hour and a half it’d been. Doctor Shrike had explained that Chris had started to crash. They’d caught some internal bleeding that they’d missed. The second surgery had gone a lot quicker than the first, and now they knew for sure that internal bleeding would no longer be an issue.

That knowledge hadn’t made Lance feel any better though. Chris was still in a coma and he’d only feel better when he came out of it. Doctor Shrike had cautioned that there was a 50/50 chance that he would, but Lance felt that he had to hang onto some optimism. If he didn’t, then it would be a lot harder to hold it together. As long as there was a shred of hope, he could keep going.

“Lance!”

Lance looked up at hearing his name being called. He was momentarily surprised to see Johnny, but quickly realized that news must’ve gotten out and he just heard about it. Justin sat up a little straighter, but didn’t make any move to get off the couch and greet Johnny. Squeezing his shoulder briefly, Lance eased himself out from the edge of the couch and Justin settled himself against JC’s shoulder. Once Lance was standing, he strode across the room to meet Johnny.

“I just heard what happened. Is everyone all right?” Johnny asked.

Lance sighed and ran a hand over his face. “JC’s fine…for the most part. Nothing too serious. He’s got a concussion and some cuts and bruises.”

“And Chris?”

“Chris is…” Lance sighed again. “He’s in a coma, Johnny.”

Johnny frowned. “What happened?”

Lance shrugged. He didn’t know the exact story. “His doctor says that the impact caused some internal bleeding and a severe head injury. Combined they forced his body into a coma.”

“Have they let you in to see him yet?” Johnny asked.

“No. He just came out of a second surgery. They’d found some more internal bleeding, but think they got it all fixed up this time,” Lance said.

“Bev needs to know about this,” Johnny said.

Lance groaned. “I totally forgot about calling anyone.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get a hold of her. It might take a while though because she’s on a cruise with Chris’s sisters.”

“Thanks,” Lance said, relieved. He’d completely forgotten about trying to contact Chris’s family.

Johnny paused and eyed him critically. “How are you doing?”

“I’m…all right.”

“What about them?” Johnny asked, inclining his head toward the couch on the far side of the room where JC and Justin were still sitting.

“JC’s gone into some sort of shock, and Justin…he’s really broken up over it,” Lance said.

Johnny nodded understandingly and glanced around the room. “Where’s Joey?”

Lance sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “He took off a couple of hours ago. I’m starting to get worried, but I don’t want to leave JC and Justin alone.”

“I can sit with them,” Johnny volunteered. “If you want to check on Joey.”

“That’d be great. Thanks,” Lance said, fishing his keys out of his pocket. “I’ll be back soon.”

Johnny nodded and fixed him with a stern look. “Be careful.”

“I will,” Lance promised and left the room.

It didn’t take him long to get back out into the parking lot and jump back into his car. As soon as he was on the highway, he dialed Joey’s cell phone. When he got his voicemail Lance hung up and tried calling his own home phone in case Joey had gone back there. But there wasn’t any answer. That didn’t deter Lance though because he began to alternate between his home phone and Joey’s cell phone, hoping that he’d pick up.

Lance began to wonder if he should try to call Joey’s house to see if he went back there. It wasn’t a hard thing to believe because Joey would want to be with his family. The only problem was that he didn’t want to freak Kelly out by asking her and finding out that Joey wasn’t there. That was the last thing she needed, especially since she wasn’t happy with Joey at the moment.

But maybe she deserved to know what was going on. After all, she was Chris’s friend too and would probably want to know that he was in a coma. As Lance made a left to turn into his driveway, he swore that if Joey wasn’t in the house then he’d call Kelly and let her know what was going on. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to do that though because he wasn’t sure if he could handle that right now.

Lance hurriedly threw the car into park and yanked the key out of the ignition before he ran into the house. It was dark, but maybe Joey just hadn’t turned on any lights. Continuing his way to the living room, Lance turned on the kitchen light and looked into the living room. The light from the kitchen filtered into the room just enough for him to make out Joey lying on the couch.

“God, Joey, you had me worried sick,” Lance said, stepping into the living room and turning the lamp on that sat on the end table next to the couch.

But as he got closer he noticed that Joey was asleep. Lance looked down at the coffee table and saw a large bottle of whiskey. He picked it up and frowned at the empty bottle. Joey had come back to the house and gotten so drunk that he’d passed out.

Lance felt anger rise up in him, but he pushed it down. First he had to take care of Joey and make sure he was OK. He could release it on Joey after he woke up. It would serve him right. But right now Lance’s main priority was getting Joey into bed.

After a minute of struggling, he managed to get Joey to his feet. Joey was barely awake, but it was enough to get him upstairs. Lance set him on his bed and pulled out a chair before sinking his exhausted body into it. He watched Joey sleep for a minute, making sure that he didn’t need medical attention of any kind before he wearily closed his eyes. This day just kept getting longer and longer with no end in sight.

Two hours later Lance was still sitting in the desk chair, waiting for Joey to wake up. He’d called Johnny shortly after he’d put Joey to bed to let him know that he found him, but wouldn’t be coming back to the hospital for at least a couple of hours since he had to take care of Joey. It was then that Johnny informed him that Doctor Shrike had been in to see them and said that Chris was now settled into a room on the ICU floor. They could visit him whenever they were ready.

Johnny had offered to go in with Justin and JC, but Justin refused. He didn’t want to go in to see Chris. When Lance had heard that he felt even more anger at Joey. It was obvious from his conversation with Johnny that Justin was terrified to see Chris alone, and Lance was pissed that he couldn’t be there to go in with Justin.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Joey shift on the bed. Lance sat up straighter. It was about time. The sooner Joey woke his ass up, the sooner they could get back to the hospital.

Joey opened his eyes and immediately put a hand to his head. He sat up a little and squinted in Lance’s direction. “Lance? What are you doing here?”

“That’s what I’ve been asking myself for the past two hours,” Lance said.

“You’ve been here two hours?” Joey asked.

“What? Did you think you could just take off and we wouldn’t come looking for you?”

“I was going to come back,” Joey defended quietly, still clutching his head.

“Yeah, on a stretcher,” Lance muttered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lance glared at him. “You know what it means!”

“Dude, could you not yell so loud? My head is freaking pounding,” Joey said.

Lance let out a sigh of exasperation and said sarcastically, “Gee, I wonder why.”

“Why are you making a big deal out of this? I had a drink. So what?”

“You’re going to kill yourself, that’s what,” Lance shot back.

“Hey, I’ve never tried to kill myself. That’s you and JC,” Joey replied.

Lance stared at Joey in surprise. He couldn’t believe Joey just said that to him. It was easy to blame it on his hangover, but Lance was done making excuses for him. Joey had to face up to what he’d been doing.

“How dare you,” Lance hissed. “You know I had no control over that.”

“Well, maybe I don’t have any control over how much I drink,” Joey said.

“Don’t hand me that. You know your body’s limitations. You know when you’re supposed to stop.” Lance sighed. “You have to stop doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Drinking yourself into a stupor!”

“I don’t—”

“Yes, you do!” Lance interrupted. “You drink so much that you pass out. Do you know how dangerous that is? You could die of alcohol poisoning.”

“Thanks, Mom, but I’m a big boy. I can handle it,” Joey said.

Lance shook his head. “You keep telling me that, but every time I’m ready to trust you again, you pull something like this.”

“What the hell was I supposed to do? Chris is lying in a hospital bed in a coma.”

“Exactly!” Lance stood up, sending the chair back a foot. “There’s already so much to deal with without you adding to it. Chris is in a coma, Justin’s devastated, and JC’s so far gone who knows if we’ll ever reach him again.”

Lance sighed and looked at the floor, briefly before bringing his gaze back up to Joey. “I’m not supposed to worry about you. I’ve never had to before and I don’t want to start now, especially when everything’s falling apart.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Joey protested.

“Apparently I do. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here.” Lance paused. “One of your best friends had an unfortunate accident. When that happens you deal with it. You don’t go hiding yourself in booze.”

“I’m not hiding,” Joey protested, but Lance continued on as if he hadn’t heard him.

“Did you know I could be at the hospital right now going in to see Chris with Justin who’s too petrified to do it himself?” Lance’s glare intensified. He was so caught up in his anger that he didn’t notice Joey’s eyes start to water. “Instead I’m stuck here taking care of your sorry ass that ran out on us when we needed you the most.”

“I’m sorry,” Joey said quietly, tears streaming down his face.

Lance’s anger left him at the sight of Joey’s tears. He stepped forward and sat on the bed to envelop Joey in a hug. Joey started to cry harder and Lance felt his own tears run down his cheeks. But he just let them come, not having enough energy to hold it together at the moment.