Lance and Justin turned, mouths dropped in shock. Chris’s eyes were open and he was struggling to pull himself into a sitting position, looking like he just woke up from a nap rather than a coma. The sight almost made Lance believe that he was imagining it because it’d only been a minute earlier that Chris had still been in a coma. Glancing back at Joey whose eyes were half closed, Lance had never felt so torn. He wanted to go over to Chris, but Joey had just collapsed for apparently no reason.

“Go check on Chris.”

“But Joey…”

“I’m fine,” Joey said, groggily. “Just check on Chris.”

“What’s going on?” Chris asked, from the bed where he was propped up on his elbows.

Lance frowned at Joey, but got up off the floor and moved to the side of Chris’s bed. “How are you feeling?” he asked, as he hit the call button. It was best to get a nurse or a doctor in there right away to make sure Chris was all right.

“Fine,” Chris said. “Great actually.”

“Really?” Justin asked with a hint of skepticism.

“Yeah.” Chris looked at both of them. “What happened?”

Lance frowned. Maybe there was some brain damage despite the fact that Chris looked completely fine. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I remember that jerk smashing into the side of the car before everything went black,” Chris said.

“You were hurt pretty bad,” Justin told him softly.

“Well, I feel fine. In fact, I don’t think this is necessary anymore,” Chris said, reaching his left hand out to pull off the white clip on his right pointer finger. Lance, however, intercepted his hand.

“Leave it,” Lance demanded.

“Why?”

“Because you’ve been in a coma for the past ten hours,” Lance snapped before he sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. He hadn’t meant to yell at Chris like that, but he wanted to make sure Chris was given a clean bill of health by the doctor before he shrugged off treatment.

“You took a bad blow to the head and had some internal bleeding from being crushed against the side of the car. That’s what caused the coma,” Justin said before Chris could ask.

“How’s JC?” Chris asked, letting his hand drop onto his lap.

Justin and Lance exchanged a quick look before Justin said, “He has a mild concussion and some cuts and bruises, but he’s all right.”

Chris pushed himself up higher and his gaze fell on Joey on the floor. “What’s wrong with him?”

“We don’t know. He just kind of collapsed,” Lance said.

“From what?” Chris asked, frowning.

“You woke up before we got a chance to find out,” Lance replied.

“Well, what are you standing here talking to me for?”

Lance rolled his eyes and sighed, but knelt back on the floor next to Joey whose eyes were closed. It was possible that he’d passed out, but he was awake and lucid a minute ago. That gave Lance hope that he was just sleeping and therefore not serious enough to cause him to pass out. As he placed a hand on Joey’s shoulder to shake him awake, Lance looked up briefly at Justin who’d just joined him on the floor.

“Joey.” Lance shook his shoulder. “C’mon, Joe. Wake up.”

“How you doing, JC?”

Lance felt his grip on Joey’s shoulder loosen as he looked over at Chris who had managed to pull himself into more of sitting position and leaning towards JC. He knew that he and Justin should’ve told Chris about JC being in shock, but they didn’t want to bring it up right then. A part of Lance even hoped that JC would snap out of it in the next minute or two, and then they wouldn’t have to worry about it at all. But even that wasn’t what required his attention. Joey was Lance’s main concern at the moment. Everything else would be dealt with later.

There was movement under his left hand and Lance glanced down at Joey who had shifted. He glared over at Justin who’d removed his finger from Joey’s side. “Poke my side one more time and I’ll rip off your finger,” Joey mumbled.

“Are you OK?” Lance asked, forcing Joey to focus his attention on him instead of Justin.

Before Joey could answer the door opened to reveal the doctor walking swiftly into the room only to abruptly stop. Lance watched as his eyes traveled from Chris awake in the hospital bed to Joey on the floor. After a few seconds, he started to step forward towards Chris.

“Don’t.” Chris put a hand up and gestured to Joey on the floor. “Check on him first.”

“I’m going to call for a nurse to check over your friend while I examine you,” Doctor Shrike said, stepping next to Chris’s bed to hit the call button. A minute later, a nurse came into the room.

“What can I do to help?” the nurse asked.

“Check on that young man,” Doctor Shrike said, pointing to Joey who was sleeping slumped against the wall. The nurse nodded and she knelt down as Lance and Justin stood up to give her room to work.

Lance’s eyes bounced back and forth between Joey and Chris both getting their separate examinations. A lot rode on what the results would be because if there was something seriously wrong with either of them then that would be another hurdle they’d have to get over. He sincerely hoped that wouldn’t be the case.

The doctor straightened up from where he’d been listening to the rhythm of Chris’s beating heart. He replaced the stethoscope around his neck and said, “I can’t explain it. Your vitals are good, which isn’t normal for a person who just came out of a coma.”

“So he’s going to be OK? No brain damage or anything?” Justin asked from where he was still standing next to Joey.

“No, he’s perfectly healthy. He doesn’t even seem to be feeling the effects of the internal bleeding. I don’t know how, but I’ve always been told not to question things we can’t explain, especially the good ones,” Doctor Shrike said.

“Are you going to unhook me from these machines then?”

The doctor shook his head at Chris. “I want to keep you in a recovery wing upstairs until morning for observation just as a precaution. If everything still looks good, then you’ll be released by early afternoon.”

Lance let out a mental sigh of relief, and a quick glance at Justin showed that he shared in that relief. He’d been so afraid that Chris wouldn’t pull out of the coma despite the reassurances he’d said to Justin all day. But he was glad that he’d at least held onto a glimmer of hope that he’d pull through because it’d paid off.

“How’s our other patient?” Doctor Shrike asked the nurse who was taking Joey’s pulse.

“His heart rate’s on the slow side and his reactions are pretty sluggish. I’d say he’s suffering from exhaustion,” she said, looking up at the doctor.

Doctor Shrike nodded. “I’ll set up a bed for him in your room,” he looked over at Chris, “so he can get some rest. I have to get a few things set up first, but I’ll be back shortly.”

“Thank you,” Lance said.

The doctor smiled at him before he said to the nurse as he gestured to Joey, “Go ahead and get him set up in a room upstairs.”

The nurse nodded and they both left the room, but the nurse returned a minute later with an orderly and a bed with wheels to move Joey upstairs. Justin helped the young male orderly get Joey up onto the bed before following them out the door. Lance sighed and sank into the chair across from JC next to Chris’s bed.

“Exhaustion,” Chris muttered to himself before he looked over at Lance. “How did you not catch that?”

Lance shook his head. “I don’t think it’s exhaustion.”

“That’s what the doctor said,” Chris said.

“The doctor also said you probably wouldn’t wake up from the coma,” Lance retorted.

Chris sighed. “So what caused it then?”

“I don’t know,” Lance confessed. “I mean, he was fine. We ate like an hour ago, but I guess his hangover could’ve been part of the reason.”

Chris’s eyes narrowed. “What hangover?”

“He took off after we got the news about you. We gave him a few hours to deal before I went looking for him and found him at the house passed out on the couch with an empty bottle of whiskey.”

“Damn it, Joey,” Chris said softly, shaking his head.

“I got rid of all the alcohol in the house,” Lance replied. After he’d called Johnny and had been left waiting for Joey to wake up, he’d gone downstairs and threw away all of the alcohol in his house. He figured it would be the best way to prevent a repeat.

Chris nodded and said, “So you think that might have something to do with it?”

“It could be. Like I said, we came back to the hospital and had a late dinner. He looked pretty tired before, but it was even worse after Justin and I came back from getting coffee,” Lance said.

“What do you mean?”

“He just…looked so exhausted. His head was resting on your bed and he went to stand up when his legs gave out on him,” Lance explained. “That was about the time when you woke up…” his voice trailed off.

Lance couldn’t believe he hadn’t made the connection before. It seemed so obvious now. Though, he wasn’t sure if he was even right. But it fit perfectly into the chain and that had to be more than coincidence, which was something he couldn’t ignore.

“Lance?” Chris’s voice pulled Lance out of his thoughts and realized that Chris was staring at him expectantly. “You want to share whatever it is you’re thinking?”

“Joey suddenly becomes exhausted at the same time you suddenly wake up from a coma.”

“Thanks, but I thought we already established that,” Chris said.

“Don’t you think that’s weird?” Lance asked.

“No, but apparently you do.”

“Think about it. You’re one hundred percent better, which is amazing considering the condition you were in. But Joey’s so weak, it’s like his body’s completely depleted of energy. You really don’t think there’s a connection there?”

Chris smoothed out his sheet before he looked up at Lance. “So you think that Joey…what? Healed me?”

“That’s exactly it,” Lance said, nodding. He saw Chris’s skepticism and added, “I’ve been waiting for this.”

Chris raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been waiting for us to get some freaky power?”

“It fits perfectly into the chain,” Lance said.

“There’s a chain?” Chris asked.

“It starts with JC and me. We’re connected with telepathy. Then it moves onto Justin and JC. The nightmares, eventually turned visions, connect the two of them since they’re from JC’s perspective. You and Justin is the next one with you feeling his pain. I’ve been waiting for the rest of the chain to appear,” Lance explained.

“And you think whatever happened is the next link?” Chris scoffed. “That’s not even possible.”

Lance crossed his arms. “I think that’s a relative term. Nothing’s out of the realm of possibility lately.”

“Why do you have to read into everything? What can’t you just take this as a medical marvel or something equally as amazing?”

“Because it’s not,” Lance insisted.

Chris looked like he wanted to continue their disagreement, but just then the door opened to reveal Doctor Shrike coming back into the room announcing that Chris could be moved into the room with Joey. The doctor unhooked the machines from Chris’s body and said that he was going to leave them off because he was so stable.

It’d only taken five or ten minutes to get Chris moved into the recovery room with Joey on the fifth floor. Joey was sound asleep in the bed over by the window while Chris had been set up closer to the door. Lance gently led JC into a chair next to Justin before turning his attention to the doctor.

“Now I suggest you try to get some sleep. A nurse will come in every few hours to check on you. If everything goes smoothly and I’m happy with the results, you can be back home by dinner time tomorrow,” Doctor Shrike told Chris, standing at the foot of his bed.

“Thanks, Doc,” Chris said.

“What about Joey?” Lance asked.

“He just needs some rest. Come morning he should be back to his normal self,” Doctor Shrike said. He glanced at each of them briefly. “There’s always a nurse on duty, so just hit the call button if you need anything. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning.”

The doctor turned to head for the door when Justin spoke up, “Doctor?”

“Yes?” Doctor Shrike asked, turning around to look at him.

“What about JC?” Justin asked, gesturing to him sitting in a chair in between the two beds.

“What about him?”

“He’s been like this for nearly eleven hours now,” Justin said.

Doctor Shrike frowned and removed the stethoscope from around his neck as he stepped forward to check over JC. After a few minutes of checking his vitals, he looked up at Justin. “There’s been absolutely no change whatsoever since he first fell into this state?”

“No, he’s been like this ever since the accident.”

“Well, his vitals are strong. Right now I think the best course of action is to wait for him to come out of it on his own. Shock is usually brought on by tragic situations, but now that things are better it’s more likely that his body will correct itself,” the doctor said.

Justin chewed on his fingernail worriedly. “But what if he doesn’t?”

“I don’t see why he wouldn’t, but if he doesn’t within twenty-four hours…” Doctor Shrike pulled a small notepad out of his pocket that he wrote prescriptions on and jotted down something before handing the paper to Justin. “Here’s a list of specialists. I would highly recommend giving them a call. They could help you out.”

“Thank you,” Justin said softly as he folded the sheet of paper in half and shoved it into his jean pocket.

Doctor Shrike nodded. “If you have any more questions, feel free to let me know.”

Without another word, the doctor left the room, closing the door quietly behind him. As soon as he was gone, Chris said, “I can’t believe he’s been like this for that long.” He glanced at Lance and Justin. “Have you tried to snap him out of it?”

“No,” Justin admitted quietly.

“Why the hell not?” Chris asked.

“We thought he’d come out of it by himself,” Lance said.

Chris rolled his eyes. “Well, clearly that’s not working.”

“Got any bright ideas then?” Lance asked.

“Actually…” Chris threw his blanket off his legs and started to get out of bed only to be pushed down by Lance.

“Can you just take it easy? Just relax and let us handle it,” Lance said.

“Then handle it.”

Lance sighed, but nodded, fixing his attention on their friend. “JC.” Lance moved to sit on the end of Chris’s bed in front of JC and had to duck his head to meet JC’s blank eyes. “C’mon, JC. Everything’s fine. Chris is better.”

Chris kicked him, causing him to fall forward slightly. “That’s not doing anything. If all you were doing was talking to me, then I wouldn’t snap out of it either.”

Justin slid out of his chair and crouched down in front of JC, putting a reassuring hand on his knee. He squeezed it gently. “JC.”

“JC,” Lance said, reaching out a hand to shake his shoulder. He and Justin kept on saying JC’s name while touching him in various places, trying to jar him out of the place he’d retreated to inside himself. After a minute or two of trying, Lance relinquished his hold on JC’s shoulder and sat back. Even Justin had lowered his gaze and looked defeated with his shoulders hunched.

“What are you doing?” Chris asked, kicking Lance again. “Keep trying.”

“But we’re getting nowhere,” Lance said.

“Well, of course not. Not with that attitude. You gotta keep at it.”

Justin raised his head so he was looking up at JC and squeezed his knee again. “C’mon, C.”

Nearly ten seconds passed with no response and Justin looked like he was about to give up when JC lowered his head. He locked eyes with Justin and Justin sighed in relief.

“Are you all right, JC?” Justin asked, his voice heavy with relief. He waited for another response only to have his face fall. Lance couldn’t blame him. Getting some kind of reaction out of JC had been so promising, but now they were practically back to the beginning.

“Keep trying,” Chris repeated as he leaned forward in bed while incessantly kicking his foot into Lance’s hip. “We’re finally getting somewhere.”

Lance glared at him and snapped, “Dude, stop with your annoying cheerleading charade. It’s not working.”

“What do you mean it’s not working? He reacted, didn’t he? You’re going to quit when he finally looks like he’s coming out of it?” Chris asked, crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow.

“He wouldn’t even be like this if it wasn’t for you!” Lance shot back. “I mean, you ignored my warning and got into a car with him knowing what the consequences would be.”

Chris unfolded his arms as he leaned forward and glared at Lance. “I didn’t ignore you. I had no other choice.”

“Why? What was so damn important that it was worth risking both of your lives?” Lance asked.

“His hand was infected,” Chris said. There was a slight pause. “I tried calling you guys, but none of you had your damn phones on. Maybe if you had you could’ve told me what to do. But you didn’t, so I did what I thought was best.”

Lance let his eyes fall onto JC’s bandaged left hand. He’d almost forgotten that the nurse had mentioned that his hand had been treated for infection. Chris had been perfectly within his rights to try to get JC help even if he should’ve sought out an alternative to driving himself. At least he’d tried to call them first. Based on that and how bad JC had been, Lance didn’t blame Chris for taking matters into his hands to do whatever he could to help his friend. If put in that position they all probably would’ve done the same thing.

“Well, he might’ve reacted, but he didn’t answer Justin’s question. I think maybe we should just leave him alone for now. Maybe we’ve jumpstarted the process and he’ll come out of it on his own now,” Lance said, trying to get their conversation about JC in shock back on track.

“Are you really willing to bank on that? He could just sink back into his mind or wherever the hell he goes,” Chris replied.

Lance sighed, but knew Chris had a point. They had to be sure that JC was starting to come out of this or they might be calling a specialist before the day was over tomorrow. With that thought in mind, Lance let his eyes focus on JC and let his surroundings blur in his mind’s eye as he tapped into JC’s mind.

He still couldn’t sense any strong emotions or thoughts, but there was something. Lance wasn’t sure what, but there was definitely something different from the last time he’d been in JC’s head. It gave him hope that maybe JC really was coming out of this. Maybe they really could come out of this relatively unscathed.

“He’s coming out of it,” Lance said.

Justin looked up at him in surprise. “What?”

“How do you know?” Chris asked.

“His mind. It feels different than when I was trying to get through earlier,” Lance said.

“Then that’s even more reason to keep trying,” Chris persisted.

Lance sighed again. “Later, all right? I still think he’ll come out of it by himself.”

“Fine.”

Justin sighed and stood up. He took a few steps before heavily dropping into the seat next to Chris’s bed on the right of JC. It was easy to see how disappointed he was that JC still wasn’t back to normal yet. Lance leaned over to pat his arm reassuringly. “It’s OK, J. You got through to him and that’s what counts. It means that he’s starting to come out of it.”

Justin didn’t say anything but nodded. Nearly a minute of silence passed before Justin glanced over his shoulder at Joey who was still sleeping peacefully on the other twin bed with the pristine white sheets. “What about Joey?”

“He’s going to be fine, J,” Lance said.

“I guess, but how did he let exhaustion get to him? I thought we all learned our lesson with JC,” Justin said.

“Joey’s not exhausted.”

Justin turned his head to look at Lance. “Then what? What other explanation is there?”

“We have a theory,” Lance started.

“You,” Chris corrected, interrupting him. “You have a theory. I’m staying out of this.”

Lance narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know why you refuse to believe it. It makes perfect sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Chris objected. “You’re reaching and you know it.”

Lance furiously shook his head. “It fits perfectly into the chain. You just don’t want to except that there might be something else going on.”

“You’re damn right I don’t. We shouldn’t have to deal with this shit. We’ve already gone through enough without adding ridiculous stuff like this,” Chris said.

“Guys!” Justin called, raising his voice a little but not so much that it’d wake up Joey as he stepped in their line of sight. Once he had their attention he asked, “Are you going to explain to me what the hell you two are arguing about?”

“Chris refuses to believe the facts about what happened,” Lance said.

“Only because it sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie,” Chris shot back.

“Guys!” Justin said again before he let out a frustrated sigh. “Just tell me. Preferably without arguing the entire time.”

“Lance thinks Joey healed me,” Chris said gruffly, rolling his eyes.

Justin backed up a step in surprise, forcing the chair to slide across the floor with a short screech. He lowered himself into the chair. “What?”

Lance glared at Chris. “Way to ease him into it there,” Lance said sarcastically. He sighed and looked over at Justin. “I know it’s surprising, but it makes sense. Joey collapsed about the same time that Chris woke up. Don’t you think that’s more than a coincidence?”

“I guess.” Justin paused. “But I don’t understand how this could happen. It just came out of nowhere.”

“Well, it’s not like we had any warning with your visions. Or even with Chris taking your pain. The elf that he is,” Lance said, smiling slightly.

Chris’s foot connected with his hip again. “Cute, Bass,” he said sarcastically.

“But seriously, so far with all the…connections between us, it’s formed a chain.”

Justin frowned. “A chain?”

“JC and I were the first with telepathy. Then you and JC with you having nightmares and visions through his eyes, and you and Chris with him taking away your pain. The natural progression suggests that Joey and Chris are next and I believe that Joey did heal Chris,” Lance explained.

“So then why did Joey collapse?” Justin asked.

Lance shrugged. “Maybe it’s the aftereffect. You know, like healing Chris took a lot out of him.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Justin said slowly, most likely processing the information. “But how do we know that it’s not exhaustion?”

“We don’t,” Chris said quickly.

“Yes we do,” Lance countered, glaring. “Joey’s been fine all day. It’s not like he didn’t eat because we had dinner. And he was tired, sure, but we’re all tired. For him to turn so worse in such a short amount of time isn’t logical. If it’d been exhaustion, we would’ve noticed the signs sooner.”

Justin nodded. “You’re right.”

“Oh, come on! He’s pulling this out of left field,” Chris complained.

“I don’t think so, Chris. With everything that’s been happening lately, it’s not out of the realm of possibility,” Justin said.

Chris scoffed. “Fine, but I refuse to believe it. At least until I have some solid proof.”

“All right, fair enough,” Lance consented. “We’ll prove it tomorrow when Joey wakes up.”

“Fine,” Chris repeated.

Lance let his eyes land on Justin and saw him with his right foot in his lap, playing with his shoelace. The look on his face appeared to be one that was in deep thought. He was probably considering everything Lance had said. Sure it was out there, but it was totally justified with how surreal their lives have been lately. And the idea of Joey collapsing gave Lance mixed feelings because on the one hand he was relieved exhaustion wasn’t the cause. However, if this was how Joey would react every time he healed Chris, then that was certainly a cause for concern. But for right now Lance was going with relief. He just hoped he wouldn’t live to regret it.