Joey rounded the corner and stepped into the private waiting room with Lance in tow. Immediately Johnny looked up and rose from the chair that Lance had occupied hours before. Briefly Joey’s befuddled mind wondered what their manager was doing there because Lance hadn’t mentioned it to him, but he figured Johnny must’ve heard about it. And knowing Lance, he hadn’t wanted to leave JC and Justin alone, so Johnny probably offered to stay.

“Hey, Joey.” Johnny stepped closer to the center of the room. “How are you holding up?”

Joey hesitated briefly, glancing back at Lance. “I’m all right.”

Johnny just nodded and Joey took that opportunity to join Justin and JC on the couch. As he sat down, he watched as Lance and Johnny spoke in hushed voices across the room. But Joey didn’t pay any attention to it as he let his mind wander and his eyes scanned different parts of the room.

He didn’t really want to be back in the hospital. Being there made it more real and inescapable than sitting at Lance’s house. At least there he could pretend the car accident had never happened and that one of his best friends wasn’t in a coma. And as long as he was disconnected with reality he could pretend that demons didn’t exist and JC’s life wasn’t in danger.

A weight on his shoulder brought Joey out of his thoughts. He glanced down to the right to see Justin’s head resting on his shoulder. Justin’s eyes were red rimmed, which contrasted against his pale skin. Joey knew that he hadn’t been taking it well, but he didn’t think he was that bad.

“Are you all right, J?” Joey asked.

Justin didn’t answer his question, but asked, “Where’d you go?”

“I…” Joey paused, not wanting to tell Justin the truth. At least not yet. “I just needed some time.”

“Are you going to leave again?” Justin asked.

“No, I’m staying,” Joey assured, draping his right arm across Justin’s shoulder.

“Good,” Justin said quietly.

Joey felt his heart clench painfully. He’d gotten the impression from Lance that Justin hadn’t been handling the news about Chris well, but it was even worse to actually see it. Justin hadn’t been this emotional or vulnerable in a long time. And when he was, Joey never had to deal with it too much because JC always took charge and comforted Justin.

Glancing over at JC, it was easy to see why Justin needed someone else to cling to because it looked like he hadn’t moved at all during the couple of hours Joey had been gone. Joey tried to dismiss that idea because surely JC had snapped out of it, but then why did he still have that emotionless expression on his face?

“See ya, Johnny,” Lance’s voice said, bringing Joey’s attention to focus on him and their manager who was walking out the door.

“Where’s he going?” Joey asked when Lance got closer, gesturing at the door.

“He needs to take care of some things,” Lance said. “Apparently the media is in a frenzy, so he’s going to try to do damage control.”

Joey nodded. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to do a press conference again. There was too much to deal with at the moment, but Joey was confident that Johnny had recognized that and wouldn’t schedule anything. The whole situation was kind of ironic. Earlier that day they’d smoothed out Justin’s collapse with the press only to have JC and Chris end up in a car accident not even an hour after that. So they were pretty much right back to where they’d started that day.

“You guys ready?” Lance asked.

Joey looked up at him in confusion. “For what?”

“To see Chris. I got his room number from Johnny.”

Joey didn’t say anything, but removed his arm from around Justin. “C’mon, J.”

“I can’t.” Justin pulled his head off Joey’s shoulder and looked up at him and Lance briefly. “I want to, but I can’t.”

“Why not?” Joey asked.

Justin sighed softly and focused his attention on picking at his fingernails. “I’m scared. I don’t want to see him like that. He’s not supposed to be lying on some hospital bed.”

“It’s OK to be scared. I’m scared too,” Lance admitted as he sat down on the coffee table in front of Justin. “But I’m not going to let my fear stop me from seeing him.”

“I can’t help it. I can’t see him like that when I know that he might never wake up,” Justin said.

“Hey,” Joey nudged him gently in the side, “Don’t talk like that. What would Chris say if he could hear you?”

“Doesn’t matter because he can’t.”

“Everything’s going to be OK. Chris’ll wake up and laugh at us for being so worried. You’ll see,” Lance said.

“That’s not what the doctor said!” Justin objected, leaning forward so he was practically sitting on the edge of the couch. “He said that only three out of every ten comatose patients actually come out of it. And even if he does there’s a good chance that he’ll have brain damage.”

Lance sighed. “Justin…doctors don’t always know everything.”

“That’s right. They only went to school for like ten years, so they know nothing,” Justin replied sarcastically as his eyes watered. It was easy to see how hard he was fighting not to give into his tears.

Joey reached out and placed a hand in the middle of his back, rubbing small circles. “I don’t think that’s what Lance meant, Just.” He locked eyes with Lance. “Right?”

“Right,” Lance agreed. “I just meant that they don’t know Chris. They don’t know how much of a fighter he is and that he’s too stubborn to give up on us.”

“But what if he does?” Justin asked, his chin quivering and tears leaking out of his eyes.

Lance leaned forward and rested a hand on Justin’s knee. “Do you know how many times I believed that we weren’t going to make it? Back in the forest I thought I was going to die. I really thought that was it. I’d never felt so alone and was ready to give up…to let myself die. But then you and JC showed up and I was saved.

“And when you were kidnapped, I felt the exact same thing you’re feeling now. I was so sure that we’d never see you again, but even if we did, you wouldn’t be alive. That wasn’t how it happened though. We always get ourselves into these situations that look so damn bleak, but we always make it out alive.

“Chris is going to pull out of this.” Lance forced Justin to meet his eyes as he firmly said, “Do you understand me?”

Justin nodded slowly, his face wet with tears. Lance squeezed his knee and smiled slightly before pushing himself to his feet. What he’d said was true in every way and Joey hadn’t realized it until Lance had said it. They had certainly lucked out by escaping life and death situations without much damage, but Joey had to wonder if that luck would run out.

“Let’s go,” Lance said.

Without a word Joey and Justin rose from their seats in sync. Joey wrapped his arm around Justin as Justin wiped at his tears with the back of his hand that didn’t have the cast. He watched as Lance walked over to the other end of the couch and gently pulled JC to his feet. Together the four of them left the waiting room and traveled down the hall until they reached the elevator.

A minute later they stepped out onto the third floor. Joey hung back with Justin to let Lance lead since he was the one who knew what Chris’s room number was. They moved down the hall at a steady pace before Lance turned right into a room with JC.

Joey glanced over at Justin and hesitated just outside the doorway. “Are you OK with this?”

“Yeah,” Justin said softly.

Joey nodded and he led the way into the room. His eyes immediately landed on Chris lying in the hospital bed surrounded by a bunch of machines that made him look smaller than his 5’9” frame. Looking closer, he realized that the white clip on his right pointer finger was hooked up to a machine that kept track of his heart. In addition, to the nasal cannulae and an IV was inserted into his wrist.

It was hard to see Chris so still and weak because both were the complete opposite of him. Lance had filled Joey in on the second surgery that Chris had needed so Joey knew it wasn’t going to be good, but seeing him like this was harder than he’d thought. It was enough to leave him feeling ill, which only increased his discomfort with being in hospitals.

Joey glanced at Lance who had seated himself and JC in chairs next to the edge of Chris’s bed on the far side of the room by the window. Lance had an uneasy expression on his face, clearly sharing in Joey’s discomfort of seeing Chris like this. Movement out of the corner of his eye caused Joey to turn and see Justin moving a chair to the other side of Chris by his head.

Sighing softly to himself, Joey pulled a chair out for himself and set it next to Justin. His eyes landed back on Chris as he sat down in the chair. All he wanted was for him to wake up, so they could go back to their normal lives, or as normal as they could with demons attacking them. Most of all he just wanted his friend back.

Joey reached out a hand and set it on top of Chris’s left. There was nothing that he wouldn’t do for his friend, but in this case, there was really nothing he could do, and that killed Joey. He wanted to do something, to feel useful instead of just waiting for Chris to wake up. As he squeezed Chris’s hand, he couldn’t help but wish that he could heal him and bypass all the waiting. It would certainly be easier that way. But Joey knew that wasn’t going to happen, so he settled himself in for a very long wait.

“Justin, stop playing with your food.”

Justin looked up at Lance, but didn’t acquiesce with Lance as he continued to swirl his cold fries in ketchup. “I’m not hungry.”

“You need to eat. You haven’t eaten anything all day,” Lance said.

“I’m not hungry,” Justin repeated.

Joey sighed. “Justin, you’re going to make yourself sick. You probably have a headache already.”

“It’s not like I’d know since Chris feels my pain,” Justin said bitterly.

It was Lance’s turn to sigh. He wanted to press the issue because he was fairly confident that Justin hadn’t eaten since breakfast if he’d even done that. But Lance knew that now wasn’t a good time to push him because he was emotional and on edge with everything that’d happened.

They’d come down to the cafeteria after spending a little over an hour in Chris’s room. Lance wasn’t really hungry either, but knew that they had to eat something since they’d been going all day on nothing but the stress of the situation. He and Joey had gotten food for the four of them while Justin kept JC company at the table.

At first they’d tried to get JC to eat or at least refuse to eat, but he continued to stare blankly. Seeing that it was futile to even try, they’d turned to their own food. And it’d been quiet while they ate until Lance noticed that Justin had only taken a few bites of his sandwich and had started playing with his food.

“He hasn’t even moved,” Justin said, snapping Lance out of his thoughts.

Lance immediately knew who he was talking about and let out another sigh. “Justin, he’s in deep emotional shock.”

“You don’t think I know that? I was the one who sat with him while you went looking for Joey, and he didn’t move. Not once. Not to stretch his legs or go to the bathroom. Nothing. And it’s been over nine hours,” Justin rambled.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to wait for him to come out of it,” Joey said.

“But what if he doesn’t?” Justin asked.

“Well, he should once Chris wakes up,” Lance said.

“We don’t even know if Chris is ever going to! He could be in a coma forever and then what? What happens to JC?”

Joey frowned at him. “He’s not going to be like this forever, J.”

Justin shook his head. “There has to be something we can do.”

“Like what?” Lance asked. “JC’s impossible to reach on any given day, but it’s ten times worse when he’s in shock.”

“You should be trying to get through to him. I mean, what good’s your damn connection if you never use it?” Justin replied.

Lance let his fork clatter loudly to his plate in anger. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do all day?”

Justin glared at him. “Well, then, you need to try harder.”

“You’re not listening, Justin. I’ve been trying and I’m not feeling anything. There’s no thoughts. No emotion. Nothing.”

“But there’s got to be something,” Justin insisted. “If the situation was reversed, JC would be doing everything in his power to fix it.”

“Well, I’m not JC,” Lance snapped.

Joey looked at him in surprise. “Lance…”

Lance just averted his eyes. He hadn’t meant to snap at Justin like that. It just built up inside of him and he couldn’t take it anymore. All day he’d been working so hard to keep up good spirits and hold everything together, which was a challenge even before Justin brought up all the thoughts that had been running through his mind all day.

“We can’t give up on him,” Justin said a moment later.

“We’re not. JC will come out of this. It’s like Lance said. Chris will wake up and everything will go back to normal,” Joey replied.

Justin shook his head. “That’s not good enough.”

“There’s nothing we can do. We can’t force JC to do anything, especially when he’s like this,” Joey said.

Nearly a minute passed in silence. Justin looked at JC on his left before he dropped his eyes to the table and said quietly, “We should’ve been quicker.”

“What do you mean?” Joey asked.

“We should’ve been researching a way to stop the demons 24/7. All the free time we had should’ve been dedicated to helping JC instead of laying around watching TV or playing basketball or…or…”

“We’ve been doing the best we can,” Lance said.

“It wasn’t enough. If we’d figured out a way to stop them, the car accident wouldn’t have happened. Chris would be awake, JC would be fine, and…and free from demons torturing him and us,” Justin replied.

“We don’t know that the car accident was caused by the demons. It could’ve been—”

“What?” Justin interrupted Lance. “Just an accident? A fluke?” He paused. “You’re telling me that after everything we’ve been through with the demons attacking Joey and kidnapping me that this was just a coincidence? I mean, what are the odds?”

“I know this is hard for you to believe since we’ve been dealing with the demons for a while now, but this kind of stuff happens all the time.”

Justin glared at Lance. “Is that supposed to comfort me?”

“I’m just saying…” Lance sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know if this was a demon attack.”

“It has to be. They’ve been trying to kill us and JC for weeks now.”

“But JC was hurt,” Joey objected.

Justin scoffed. “Of course he was hurt. Everyone gets hurt in a car accident. It’s kind of hard to avoid.”

“Yeah, but so’s being locked in a room that’s on fire. But JC didn’t get hurt. He just got up and walked away while I had to be taken to the hospital for that burn and smoke inhalation,” Joey explained.

“That’s different,” Justin protested weakly.

Joey shook his head. “It’s not. The demons aren’t behind the car accident.”

Justin’s eyes filled with tears and threatened to fall. “They have to be.”

“Why?” Lance asked, frowning.

“Because…” Justin gazed down at the table before looking back up at them. “Because it means I’m going to have these stupid visions even after the demons are gone.”

Lance and Joey exchanged concerned glances. “What are you talking about?” Joey asked.

“All of my visions…every single of them…the demons have been behind them. So if they’re not behind this, then I’m cursed with seeing these horrible things play out in my head and then forced to watch them happen again since there’s no way to stop them,” Justin explained.

Lance watched as Justin bowed his head, while trying to come up with something reassuring to say. He knew how much the visions freaked Justin out and finding out that they wouldn’t stop after it was all supposed to be over wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. But his mind was drawing a blank on what to say. What do you say to someone who has horrific visions about his friends? Lance didn’t know, but he was going to try to say something.

“Justin…” He paused, still not sure what he was going to say to put Justin’s mind at ease, if only for a little bit. Lance glanced at Joey, but all he got was a shrug. It looked like he was going to have to comfort Justin himself. But Justin looked up at him before he could come up with anything.

“I need JC,” Justin said in a quiet, broken voice as he finally gave into the tears that he’d been fighting.

An hour had passed since they’d eaten a late dinner in the cafeteria downstairs and Justin had brought up JC and the accident. Joey really felt for what Justin was going through. First he finds out that two of his best friends had been in a car accident with a high probability that Chris might not wake up and JC might never snap out of his shock. Then he comes to the realization that his visions would stick around long after the demons were defeated. It’d definitely been an emotional day.

Joey and Lance had done their best to comfort Justin, but there was only so much they could do, especially since they didn’t know what the outcome would be any more than Justin. Looking at Justin with his head resting on JC’s shoulder broke Joey’s heart. It hadn’t surprised him that Justin had wanted JC because JC had been taking care of him ever since he’d met the scrawny twelve year old on the Mickey Mouse Club. But at the moment JC wasn’t able to fulfill the position of protector, so he and Lance were trying and not quite succeeding. There was no denying that JC had a way of making them all feel safe and that a solution could be reached even when he was scared out of his mind.

“Well, everything looks good.”

Quickly Joey’s eyes focused on the nurse that had just replaced Chris’s chart at the foot of his bed. He’d nearly forgotten that she’d come in a few minutes ago to check Chris’s vitals. It was a relief to hear that he hadn’t gotten worse, but Joey wanted to hear that Chris was getting better despite how unlikely it was.

“You can try talking to him. Comatose patients can usually hear you. Sometimes it’s even resulted in them recovering quicker,” the nurse said.

“Thank you,” Lance said.

She nodded and smiled at them softly before she left the room, closing the door behind her. Joey sighed as he settled back in his chair. He glanced briefly at his watch and noticed that it was going on eleven o’clock. Almost twelve hours since the accident. Though, it felt much longer than that.

“Maybe you should lie down.”

Joey looked over at Lance to ask him what he was talking about when he realized that he’d been talking to Justin, not him. And for good reason. Justin’s eyes were starting to close on their own accord, but he kept shaking himself awake.

“Lance is right. You look exhausted,” Joey said, knowing how hard the entire day had been on Justin and how draining it had to have been.

Justin tiredly shook his head, forcing his eyes open again. “Just need caffeine,” he mumbled.

“Want to go get some?” Lance asked. “I have a feeling it’ll taste like crap, but it’ll do the trick.”

Justin didn’t say anything, but nodded and stood up from the chair he’d been sitting in. He walked over to where Lance was standing by the door. “We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Lance said before disappearing behind the door with Justin close behind him.

Once they were gone Joey scooted forward on his chair and cleared his throat. He was going to take the nurse’s advice and try to talk to Chris. It would definitely be less awkward with the others out of the room because he’d find it uncomfortable since he’d be essentially talking to himself. JC was still in the room, but Joey wasn’t concerned about that since he hadn’t shown signs of awareness all day.

“Chris…” Joey sighed heavily as he rubbed at his eyes. “You’ve gotta come back to us, man. It’s not the same without you. Everything’s falling apart. JC’s gone into some kind of mental shock, Justin’s…devastated…he’s afraid that you’re never going to wake up, and Lance is trying to hold everything together.

“And I…I’m not handling it well either. When…” Joey swallowed and looked down at the white bed sheets. “When I got the news and the doctor said you were in a coma…I couldn’t take it. I took off.”

Joey paused. He could almost hear Chris’s pissed off tones as he got in his face about leaving like that without regard to the others and how they’d feel when they found out he was gone. It made his heart ache for his friend back.

“I went back to Lance’s and went through the liquor cabinet. I know it wasn’t the best idea, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. All I could think about is how you were lying defenseless in some hospital and that you were never going to wake up. If I could go back, I wouldn’t do it.” Joey let out a humorless laugh. “Lance was livid. I’ve never seen him so mad in all my life. Though, I’m sure you would’ve been right there with him.

“There’s no way we can do this without you. You’re our number one big brother and we’re not complete without you. We still need to save JC, but the best way we can do that right now is for you to wake up. Otherwise, it just makes our job harder, doesn’t it?”

Joey wiped at his eyes briefly before he grasped Chris’s hand tightly in his own. “I know you’re in there, and I know that you’re not going to leave us like this. You’re going to fight this because that’s what you always do. You look out for us.”

Watching Chris’s face, Joey secretly hoping for a reaction even though he knew he wasn’t going to get one. He wondered if talking to Chris had actually done anything in terms of helping him. At the very least it made Joey feel better to get some stuff off his chest about how wrong this whole thing was without him.

Stifling a yawn, Joey blinked in surprise. He knew he was tired, but it’d seemed to set in a little more than it had five minutes ago. Without a second thought he dismissed it on the fact that he was still hung-over. Joey placed his head on the edge of the bed and decided to rest his eyes briefly as he waited for Justin and Lance to come back.

He didn’t have to wait long because a few minutes later the door opened and Lance and Justin entered carrying three cups of coffee. Joey’s tired eyes took in Lance’s concerned expression, but didn’t say anything. They were all exhausted. It’d been a very long day and they’d be crazy not to be tired.

“Are you all right?” Lance asked him.

“’m fine,” Joey mumbled against the sheet, eyeing the coffee that Lance held in his hand greedily. He definitely needed a pick-me-up.

Joey slowly lifted his head off the bed and pushed himself to his feet. He took a step towards Lance to accept the coffee that had been wordlessly offered to him. But his legs collapsed from underneath him causing his knees to hit the cold, linoleum floor. His vision started to darken, but after a few seconds he realized that the darkness he was seeing was from his eyelids.

“Joey!”

The next thing Joey knew, a pair of arms wrapped around his middle and settled him on the floor with his back resting against the wall. He pried his eyes open and saw Lance and Justin on either side of him with panicked expressions on their faces.

“What the hell happened? Are you all right?” Lance asked.

Before Joey could answer a voice behind them said, “Guys?”