Joey walked up his driveway, his stomach churning nervously. His nerves had been gradually building since that morning when he’d first woken up. This was the first time he’d been home in nearly a month, and he didn’t know how Kelly was going to react. But he was prepared to work things out with her.

It helped that everything with the demons was over because he could tell her with confidence that he wasn’t leaving again. Chris had promised to keep him updated because Joey felt wary about leaving them, especially since everything had nearly gone to hell two days ago when they’d nearly lost JC at the cabin. It put him more at ease knowing that Chris was going to keep an eye on everyone and let him know how they were doing.

Joey sighed softly as he paused in front of his door to dig his keys out of his pocket. His fingers wrapped around the cold metal, and he found the right key before sticking it in the lock. It took longer to open his front door than it normally would since his left arm was in a sling.

They’d stopped at a hospital on the way back to Lance’s that night to get everyone checked out. His shoulder had been painfully popped back into place before the nurse had wrapped his arm in a sling to prevent him from agitating his shoulder as it healed. It still hurt, but it was more tolerable now.

He’d just shut the door when he heard footsteps. Joey’s face lit up when he saw his daughter running towards him. She looked like she had grown even though he knew that he hadn’t been gone long enough for that to happen.

“Daddy!” Brianna squealed, a smile on her face as she threw her arms around Joey’s legs.

Joey smiled as he bent down to give her a one-armed hug. “I missed you, Bri,” he whispered in her ear.

“I missed you too, Daddy.” Brianna pulled away a little and she frowned in confusion. “What happened to your arm?”

“I hurt it, but I’m OK,” Joey said, running a hand through her thick curly hair.

“Brianna.” Joey looked up with his daughter to see Kelly standing there, her expression neutral. “Why don’t you go upstairs and play while Daddy and I talk?”

“OK,” Brianna agreed easily. She kissed Joey on the cheek before she pulled out of his embrace and ran up the stairs.

Once she was out of sight, Joey slowly straightened from his crouched position. He stared at Kelly, not sure what to say. She was as beautiful as ever, and it really hit him how much he’d really missed her.

“I missed you,” Joey said.

Kelly stared back at him for a few seconds before she closed the empty space between them. She gently kissed him before wrapping her arms around him, mindful of his shoulder as she whispered, “Me too.”

After nearly twenty seconds, Kelly pulled away. She frowned in concern. “What happened to you?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” Joey said. “I’ll tell you in a bit.”

“C’mon,” Kelly said, tugging on his hand, leading him to the living room. When Joey sat next to her on the couch she asked, “Are you here to stay? Because I don’t want you here just for you leave again.”

“I’m here to stay,” Joey assured.

“What’s changed?” Kelly asked.

“Everything’s finally settled down,” Joey said.

“But what exactly happened?”

Joey sighed. “There was just some stuff we needed to deal with. But we got it under control now.”

“No.” Kelly shook her head. “You’re not doing this. I deserve to know what happened. What kept you away for so long.”

Joey knew that she was right. She did deserve to know what happened, but he couldn’t exactly tell her the truth. Not that she’d believe him anyway. That’s why he’d decided on the ride home that he wasn’t going to tell her the truth about the demons. It killed him to have to lie to her, but he knew there wouldn’t be any way that she’d understand.

“Kelly…”

“I know about the car accident and Justin passing out in Walgreens.”

Joey’s eyes widened in surprise for a second before he nodded in understanding. They’d had a press conference about Justin passing out, so of course she would’ve heard about it. And Johnny had been handling the press with the car accident. It’d just never been something that’d crossed his mind.

“I should’ve heard about that stuff from you, not MTV,” Kelly said. “Do you know how much that hurt? My own husband couldn’t pick up the phone and let me know what was going on.”

“I’m sorry,” Joey said. “There was so much going on. It was chaotic.”

Kelly sighed. “You still should’ve called me. They’re my friends too, and I deserve to know if something happens to them.”

“I’m really sorry, Kel,” Joey repeated. “You know I would never intentionally keep something like that from you.”

“Well, is Justin OK?” Kelly asked after a few seconds of silence.

Joey frowned, confused. “Yeah, he’s fine. Why?”

Kelly stared at him incredulously. “He passed out in the middle of a store! Not to mention he was the reason you left in the first place.”

Joey had almost forgotten about that. It seemed like ages ago that he’d gotten the call from Chris that something was wrong with Justin. Was that really how all of the demon stuff had started? With Justin having nightmares? So much had happened in the past month that it was hard to remember the original reason he’d left.

“Well?” Kelly prompted, signaling that he’d been quiet for too long. “Is Justin all right? And I want the truth.”

“He’s fine,” Joey assured. “He was just sick for a while.”

Kelly frowned. “And that’s why he passed out?”

“Yeah. He’d been having trouble sleeping and just hadn’t been taking care of himself,” Joey said. It was still a half truth because the only problem Justin really had was the nightmares turned visions. But it made Joey feel a little bit better about lying to Kelly, telling her about some stuff that’d actually happened.

“Why?” Kelly asked.

Joey shrugged. “We think it was stress from everything that was going on with JC.”

“What’s wrong with JC? He sounded fine when I talked to him on the phone.”

Joey’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “When did you talk to him?”

“About a week ago,” Kelly said. “I called him to talk about you.”

That wasn’t surprising. Usually if something was wrong and you wanted to know what, you could count on JC to tell you if it was serious. Not saying that JC couldn’t keep secrets because he could. But when it came to their wellbeing, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell someone about it. So it made sense that Kelly would call him.

“Joey,” Kelly said and he looked up at her. “What was wrong with JC?”

“He…” Joey paused, running a hand roughly over his chin. He met his wife’s eyes. “You remember when JC collapsed about a month ago?”

“Yeah, of course,” Kelly said. Her forehead creased with worry. “Did it happen again?”

“No,” Joey said immediately. Then he remembered JC on the bathroom floor, not able to even sit up by himself and amended, “Well, not really.”

The lines on her forehead increased. “Then what?”

“He’d been really stressed ever since the end of the tour. He hadn’t really been eating and was having nightmares a lot. That’s actually how this happened,” Joey said, gesturing to his shoulder. It was the most believable thing he could come up with.

“I was trying to calm him down from a nightmare, and he kind of lashed out at me since he was still caught up in it. My shoulder caught on the dresser, popping out of place,” Joey explained.

“Are you all right?” Kelly asked, eyeing his arm critically.

“I’m fine,” Joey said dismissively.

Kelly nodded and sat back against the cushions. “Why was JC having nightmares? He must’ve been upset for a reason.”

Joey shrugged. “I don’t know. He refused to tell us.” He sighed then. “But that wasn’t even the worst of it.”

“What? What happened?”

“He uh…” Joey hesitated, looking down and noticing one of Brianna’s toys under the coffee table. “He tried to commit suicide.”

“Oh my God,” Kelly breathed in shock. “What happened?”

Joey thought quickly. Obviously he couldn’t tell her the truth, but it had to be something believable. Then he remembered Chris describing what it’d been like to find Lance when the demon had tried to make him overdose.

“We found him in the bathroom. He overdosed on aspirin, but we managed to get him to throw up the pills,” Joey said.

“Did you take him to the hospital?” Kelly asked.

“No.”

“Joey!” Kelly reprimanded. “You should’ve taken him to the hospital!”

“We got all the pills out of his system,” Joey defended.

“He should’ve been checked out by a doctor. What if there were some underlying complications?”

“But there weren’t,” Joey said. “He’s fine.”

Kelly sighed. “Have you at least tried to get him some help?”

“We tried therapy,” Joey told her. Another half truth since it’d happened before the fact. But Joey was certain that if they tried it again, it would still have the same effect as it did the first time. JC was too private a person to divulge his thoughts and feelings to some stranger.

“Tried?” Kelly repeated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It did more harm than good. I mean, JC freaked,” Joey said.

“Did you try again?”

Joey stared at her in disbelief. “Why would we? He didn’t react well to it at all. If anything, it made him worse.”

“You can’t expect him to get better after one session,” Kelly said.

“You weren’t there.” Joey shook his head slowly. “I’d never seen him so upset in all my life.”

“Well, what did you do then?”

“We talked to him,” Joey said.

“And did it work?” Kelly asked.

“I’m not sure,” Joey admitted honestly, thinking about how tormented JC still felt after the numerous talks they’d had with him. “I mean, we talked to him about what he did. I’m just not sure if it actually sunk in or not.”

Kelly sighed. “That’s why stuff like that should be left to the professionals. I mean, you said it yourself, he wouldn’t talk to you. JC needs to talk to somebody.”

“He’s all right now. Putting him through therapy would only upset him more,” Joey said.

“Joey, he needs some real help. Just because he hasn’t done anything since, doesn’t mean he’s not thinking about it.” Kelly paused. “He probably should be put on suicide watch.”

“No,” Joey objected. “That would only make him worse.”

“Joey…” Kelly started, but he interrupted her.

“You don’t understand. Therapy and all that other stuff that most people go through…it doesn’t work with JC. He’s too private to talk to people he doesn’t know, but he doesn’t want to upset us either,” Joey explained.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to him,” Kelly said.

Joey rubbed at his forehead, sighing. “We’re handling it the best way we know how.” He glanced up at her. “I wish you’d trust that we wouldn’t put his life in jeopardy.”

The room was filled with silence for a moment before Kelly asked, “Does Johnny know about this?”

“It’s not his business,” Joey said.

“And apparently it’s not mine either,” Kelly muttered.

Joey hung his head, his expression weary. “Kelly…”

“No,” she objected, standing up suddenly. “I’m your wife, and you don’t get to treat me like this. You can’t just take off, have all this stuff happen, and then not even tell me.

“We’re supposed to talk to each other. And if you would’ve told me about all this sooner, I probably could’ve helped with JC. Especially since none of you seem to know what the hell you’re doing!”

Joey knew that Kelly was probably right, but he didn’t think she could have done much better. She continued to yell, but it now sounded distant as he thought back to everything they’d gone through to help JC. It’d been a never-ending puzzle trying to figure out why they were being attacked by demons, but they never once gave up. Failure had never been an option for them. Not even when they were forced to chase after JC to the cabin.

From the get go they’d known that it’d be risky and the outcome probably wouldn’t work in their favor, but they’d gone anyway. Because the only thing that’d mattered was JC and protecting him. And to think they’d been so close to losing him…

Joey felt his eyes burn with unshed tears and pressed two fingers against them, trying not to cry. He was vaguely aware that the yelling had stopped mid-word and the couch cushions shifted. Without another word, Kelly wrapped a comforting arm around him and pulled his head to rest on her shoulder.

The comfort of those arms was enough to break Joey. After everything they’d gone through, this was something he needed. So for the first time since everything had happened, Joey let his tears fall as he tightened his hold on his wife.

Chris stared up at the ceiling as he lied in bed. He’d been lying there for a little over an hour, and sleep continued to evade him. But it wasn’t surprising considering he couldn’t stop thinking about the past couple days.

Friday night had been such a long night with having to chase after JC to the cabin and fight off demons. Not to mention they’d stopped at a hospital on the way back. Thankfully none of their injuries had been serious enough to warrant spending the night, but it did take several hours for the doctors and nurses to tend to their wounds.

So by the time they’d arrived back at Lance’s, it’d been early morning. Without a word, the five of them had gone to their rooms to get some sleep. And that was how the majority of yesterday had been spent.

There hadn’t been much said between them since they’d gotten back, and it wasn’t just due to tiredness. It was obvious they were all trying to deal with what’d happened, or almost happened as the case may be. You’d think that now that they didn’t have to worry about devils or demons anymore that there’d be less to worry about, but Chris was as concerned as ever.

Chris let out a heavy sigh and threw back his covers as he sat up. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and walked out of his room. There was no way he was going to get to sleep anytime soon, so he might as well check on the guys.

Justin’s room was his first stop since it was almost directly across the hall from him. Chris peeked his head in and frowned when he saw a bed with rumpled covers, but no Justin. But then Chris noticed a yellowish glow leaking out from under the closed bathroom door and figured that’s where Justin was.

Though, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t worried about Justin because he hadn’t really slept since they’d been woken up from Lance’s yelling on Friday night. Even with the pain medication that the doctor had given him for his newly broken arm and broken rib, he hadn’t slept. Justin had taken the medicine, but Chris knew it was only because he wanted to alleviate his pain.

Hopefully Justin would try to get some sleep instead of watching JC. It was something he’d done ever since they’d gotten back. Chris could understand that Justin was clinging to JC because they’d almost lost him, but it wasn’t healthy to go without sleep. If Justin was still awake whenever Chris decided to try to get some sleep, then he’d talk to him. So Chris continued down the hall, reflexively glancing into the dark bedroom Joey had been staying in even though he’d gone home.

Earlier that morning, Chris had just gotten out of the shower and had been heading downstairs when he saw Joey packing. Joey had told him that he was going home to work things out with Kelly, but that part of him didn’t want to leave because he was afraid something else would happen like last time. But Chris had assured him that he would call him with updates, and that he should just focus on spending time with his family and making things right with Kelly.

“It’s over now,” Chris had told Joey. “You should go be with your family.”

It’d definitely been time. Joey had spent enough time away from them. He’d taken a day to recoup before he’d headed back. And Chris was glad he did. The sooner they got back to normal the better, and that was certainly a step in the right direction.

Continuing down the hallway, Chris paused in JC’s open doorway. He was happy to see that JC was sleeping. JC had been withdrawn and distant ever since they’d gotten back, and Chris was keeping his eye out for any possible relapses in the destructive behavior JC liked to indulge in so much. But so far it looked like it wasn’t a problem.

Chris finally made it to the end of hallway and took a step into Lance’s room only to notice that he wasn’t in bed. It wasn’t that odd since normally Lance would be up late into the night working on stuff for FreeLance, but Chris knew that wasn’t the case this time. Considering what they’d gone through, it wasn’t hard to understand why.

So Chris descended the stairs, and as soon as he turned the corner, he saw light from the end of hallway. He walked down the hall and found Lance sitting at the kitchen table with his elbow on the table, propping his head up as he stared off into space.

“I thought JC was the spacey one,” Chris joked lightly as he pulled out a chair and sat down across from Lance.

Lance blinked and slowly looked up, offering Chris a small smile. “Yeah, well, it was bound to rub off eventually.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Chris asked, his expression serious. It was obvious there was a lot on Lance’s mind, and he wanted to do whatever he could to put him at ease so he could get some sleep.

“I can’t stop thinking about what could’ve happened,” Lance admitted after a moment of silence.

“You can’t dwell on the what ifs,” Chris said. “We made it out alive, and we don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore.”

Lance shook his head slowly. “You don’t understand. You didn’t see what I did.”

Chris leaned forward slightly. “What? What’d you see?”

Nothing had been said about Lance being in JC’s head. It hadn’t mattered what’d happened in his head at the time since it’d done its purpose in bringing JC back. But it did now if it was causing Lance so much grief. And Chris would be lying if he said he wasn’t the least bit curious.

“JC’s memories,” Lance said. “Only they weren’t good ones. Most of them were from everything that’s happened to us ever since our first trip to the cabin.”

“Most?”

“Some were from his childhood and MMC. Stuff like that.” Lance sighed. “But they were horrible. And I can understand now why JC’s the way he is.”

“What do you mean?” Chris asked.

“All the memories were things that he felt responsible for. He’s felt guilt since an early age, and I think it just stuck with him and built over the years,” Lance explained.

“But why those memories? Why was he seeing them?”

“I think the devil wanted to cause him as much pain as possible, so it was using his memories against him,” Lance said.

Chris nodded even as he felt his blood boil at the thought. Knowing how much blame JC placed on himself for even the little things, it wasn’t hard to believe that he would take seeing his mistakes to heart. JC had enough problems without being reminded of past mistakes that were just that – in the past.

“And it worked,” Lance added, pulling Chris out of his thoughts.

Chris frowned. “How bad?”

Lance looked down at the white tabletop. “Bad.” He raised his eyes to meet Chris’s. “I’ve never seen him that upset.”

“But you got him out of there,” Chris pointed out.

“I almost didn’t though.” Lance sighed. “He thought he was in Hell.”

“Oh, God,” Chris mumbled. He figured JC hadn’t responded well to seeing the memories Lance mentioned, but he never imagined JC had thought he was in Hell. That really said a lot about what his state of mind had been.

“I can’t even imagine what he would’ve gone through if I hadn’t succeeded. If he was wrecked after such a short amount of time…I can’t even begin to comprehend how he’d react after being tortured with it for all eternity,” Lance said.

There was a slight pause before Lance added, “I don’t think I could’ve lived with myself if he’d died, knowing what he’d be experiencing from now until the end of time.”

“You don’t have to worry about that though because he’s alive. It’s over,” Chris said.

Lance shook his head. “No, it’s not because now we have to deal with it.”

“Yeah, but we can handle that,” Chris said. There was no doubt in his mind that they would all pull through this. They’d come too far and survived too much not to.

“Can we really?” Lance asked, skepticism in his voice.

“Yeah. We just need to get back to normal,” Chris said. “Once we get back into a normal routine, it’ll be easier to put it all behind us.”

Lance frowned. “I don’t know about that. I mean, JC’s pulling away from us again.”

“We’re not going to let what happened last time happen again,” Chris assured.

“We say that every time he does this, but it always happens anyway,” Lance said.

Chris knew Lance had a good point, but there was no way he could let JC get away with making himself sick. Again. It’d happened way too many times for his liking, and it was time for JC to learn how to deal with things without hurting himself in the process.

“Well, not this time. We’re giving him his space for now, but he’s going to talk to us whether he likes it or not,” Chris said.

Lance sighed. “But he’s not the only one. Justin’s been doing it too.”

“I know.” Chris rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “I never expected this from him.”

“Well, I’m not surprised. You saw the way he acted when we found out JC took off. He thought he was dead,” Lance said.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he has to keep a vigil over JC while he sleeps. I mean, he’s not getting any sleep doing that,” Chris replied. “Especially since he’s supposed to be letting his body heal.”

“I don’t think that’s what he’s worried about right now.”

“Well, it should be,” Chris said.

“He’ll realize he’s tired eventually,” Lance replied. “This is Justin we’re talking about. He’s not like JC.”

“Thank God for that,” Chris muttered. “One of him is more than enough.”

Silence fell over the kitchen for a minute before Lance pushed back his chair and said, “I think I’m going watch some TV. Maybe it’ll distract me enough to get some sleep.”

“I guess I’ll head back up to bed,” Chris said, rising from his chair as Lance crossed the room to pull a glass out of the cupboard.

Chris just pushed in his chair and was about to walk out of the room when he heard Lance say, “Hey, Chris.”

“Yeah?” Chris stopped in the doorway and turned to look at Lance, who was standing in front of the sink with a full glass of water.

“How do you think Joey’s doing?”

“Well…” Chris hesitated. That was a good question. “He’s still over there, so as good as can be I guess.”

Lance nodded and sighed. “Try to get some sleep.”

“You too.”

Chris left the room, hoping that sleep wouldn’t evade him and Lance anymore tonight. It was a good thing they were still on break, or they’d be having difficulties. He made his way up the stairs with every intention of getting back under his covers and trying to get some sleep when he noticed Justin sitting in JC’s room.

With a sigh, Chris walked into the room. Justin briefly looked up at his entrance before returning his eyes to the bed where JC was still sound asleep. Just like he’d been when Chris had checked on him earlier. Just like Justin should be.

All it took was one look at Justin for Chris to see how exhausted his friend looked. He had dark circles under his eyes that Chris had come to associate with JC over the past month, and his pallor made him look like he was sick. The lack of sleep was obviously catching up to him.

“C’mon,” Chris whispered to Justin as he reached across his body to grab a hold of his right wrist since he didn’t want to touch his left arm that was in a brand new cast. He pulled Justin out of the desk chair he was sitting in.

Justin sighed, but didn’t resist. Chris walked down the hall and into Justin’s room. He sat down on the bed, pulling Justin with him. His brown eyes met Justin’s exhausted blue. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause before Chris asked, “Trouble sleeping?”

Justin shrugged noncommittally.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Justin shrugged again, and Chris growled in frustration. It grated on his nerves that Justin wasn’t talking to him. He had enough of him not getting any sleep. They needed to talk, so Justin could get to a place where sleep would come easier for him.

“Would you freaking talk to me?” Chris snapped.

“He promised me,” Justin said after a couple seconds.

Chris frowned. He didn’t know what he was expecting Justin to say, but that wasn’t it. “What?”

“JC. He broke his promise,” Justin said.

“What promise?” Chris asked. He remembered Justin saying something similar in the car on the way to the cabin, but he still didn’t know what exactly the promise entailed. It was obviously important to Justin though.

“He promised he’d stay because he knew how much I needed him,” Justin said. “And he just took off anyway.”

Chris sighed. He didn’t condone JC leaving like he had and running off to the cabin even though he’d sworn not to, and Justin had every right to be upset. But, at the same time, he knew that JC had his reasons. Not matter how skewed they were.

“He thought he was doing the right thing,” Chris said, trying to defend JC. “You know how his mind works. He got it in his head that the only way to save us was to sacrifice himself.”

“But I never asked him to,” Justin said. “I wanted him to stay.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t regret what he was doing.”

Justin looked up at him. “How do you know?”

“Because he told me how scared he was of dying, but that he would do anything for us. It didn’t matter to him that he would die as long as we live,” Chris told him.

“That’s stupid,” Justin mumbled.

“Believe me I told him that from the get go, but no one ever listens to me. Especially when their name’s JC.”

“He almost died,” Justin whispered.

“Is that why you’ve been watching him? Because you’re afraid that he still might?” Chris didn’t wait for an answer before he said, “Well, don’t be. The devil can’t hurt JC anymore.”

“That’s not it,” Justin objected quietly.

Chris frowned. “Then what?”

“He snuck out when he was supposed to be sleeping,” Justin said. “I need to be prepared in case he does it again.”

Chris stared at Justin in surprise. He’d never once thought that Justin was keeping such a diligent watch over JC because he didn’t trust him. This was huge. Justin always trusted JC. There were no instances that came to mind where Justin hadn’t trusted JC. Until now anyway.

“Justin, he’s not going to do it again,” Chris tried to assure him.

“But how do you know? We thought he wouldn’t go to the cabin himself and look how that turned out,” Justin pointed out.

“There’s no reason for him to sneak out. It’s over, so he doesn’t have to sacrifice himself anymore,” Chris said.

Justin sighed and pulled at a loose string on his sweatpants. “He might not think it’s over, and want to go back to be sure.”

Chris thought back to nearly three weeks ago when JC had told him about how he didn’t think it was over. He’d believed that the demons were coming back to finish what they’d started, and, essentially, he’d been right. But Chris believed with one hundred percent certainty that JC was wrong this time if that was what he was thinking.

“I’m not letting him run off again,” Justin said, pulling Chris out of his thoughts.

Hearing Justin’s reasoning, Chris understood why Justin had been keeping an eye on JC, but that didn’t mean he agreed with it. Justin needed to know that nothing like that would happen again. Chris opened his mouth to tell him that he was going to do his damnedest to keep JC from taking off. But before he could, moaning could be heard from down the hall.

Justin was on his feet in an instant, and Chris followed him back down the hall to JC’s room. He groaned when he saw JC thrashing about, getting tangled in his sheets as he mumbled unintelligible words. Though, Chris knew he shouldn’t be surprised because nightmares were kind of normal for JC.

Chris stepped forward to help only to stop when he saw Justin sit on the edge of the bed and whisper reassurances to JC as his hands gently restrained JC’s flailing limbs. After nearly thirty seconds of JC fighting against the confines of his nightmare, his eyes flew open. They were wide with terror that had Chris frowning.

Justin continued to whisper comforting words to JC as he ran a hand through his hair. It took a few seconds, but JC’s body started to relax and his eyes grew heavy. As Chris watched his youngest brother take care of JC, it was easy to see that while Justin was pissed at JC, there was still so much love there.

With JC’s eyes closed and his erratic breathing even, Chris pushed himself away from the dresser and walked over to the bed. He untangled the sheets from JC’s legs and gently pulled them up to his chest so that they were actually covering him, Justin standing up so he could do so.

Chris stared down at JC and said, “I’m kind of surprised this hasn’t happened sooner.”

“It has.”

Chris raised a surprised eyebrow at Justin. “Excuse me?”

“Four times,” Justin said.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Chris asked. It was a little disconcerting to hear that JC already had four nightmares, and he hadn’t even been aware of them.

“Because you guys would just make it worse,” Justin snapped, his voice rising slightly. JC shifted in sleep, but didn’t wake up.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chris asked defensively. Justin accusing them of not being able to take care of JC seemed to come from nowhere, and Chris didn’t appreciate it.

“It’s your fault that he’s even like this,” Justin harshly whispered so as not to disturb JC. “If you guys hadn’t pushed him away, then he wouldn’t have tried to sacrifice himself.”

Chris crossed his arms. “How did we push him away?”

“You yelled at him every time he did something wrong,” Justin said.

“What were we supposed to do? Coddle him?”

“You were supposed to talk to him instead of attacking him. Maybe if you had he wouldn’t have felt like such a burden,” Justin replied.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Chris said, shaking his head. “Why would he feel like a burden?”

“Because he doesn’t think we love him.”

Chris scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. He knows we love him.”

“Does he really? I mean, why else would he be so willing to sacrifice himself if he thought otherwise?” Justin pressed.

Chris paused, letting Justin’s words sink in. JC had never once fought against the idea that he had to sacrifice himself. It was something that he’d mentioned when Chris had talked to him after Justin’s latest nightmare. And he’d been so adamant that the rest of them would be all right without him.

But why was that? Did JC really think that they wouldn’t be affected by his death? That he was expendable? It was then that the devil’s words to JC echoed through Chris’s mind, saying how JC was a burden and that they didn’t really care about him. JC hadn’t once fought back. It was almost as if he’d been thinking exactly what the devil had said to him, which would explain why he’d been so affected by its words.

And that made guilt rise up in Chris. Maybe they hadn’t been handling JC and his problems very well. In fact, Chris knew they hadn’t. But that was going to change.

“So you’re not going to let us help?” Chris asked, refocusing his attention on Justin.

“No,” Justin said, firmly. “You had your chance, and you blew it.”

“Yeah, well, that was before. Things are different now.” Chris paused. “Besides, you’re going to need our help.”

“No, I’m not,” Justin denied.

“At the rate you’re going…yes you are,” Chris said. “I mean, look at you. You haven’t slept in days, and it’s going to catch up to you sooner or later. My money’s on sooner.”

Justin looked down at JC before meeting Chris’s gaze. “What if something else happens?” Justin asked.

“Nothing will, but if it does, you’re just down the hall, right?” When Justin nodded Chris continued, “I know you want to help him, but you can’t do anything if you don’t get some sleep.”

Justin sighed reluctantly. “All right. I’ll try.”

Chris clapped him on the shoulder and let him lead the way out of the bedroom. He glanced over his shoulder once more to make sure that JC was still sleeping. Satisfied, he stepped out into the hallway, watching as Justin made his way towards his room. With a heavy sigh, Chris headed for his own room wondering how long it’d be before Justin went back into JC’s room, especially considering how easily he’d given in after they’d just spent the past few minutes fighting about it.

As Chris slid under his covers again, he knew he was in for a long sleepless night. He’d hoped that getting out of bed would take his mind off things and allow him to sleep when he returned, but it was worse now. Justin was worse off than he’d originally thought, and Chris wasn’t sure how to help him.