Morning couldn’t have come any faster. No one had gotten a lot of sleep the night before. It was understandable in their case. So now they all sat around in the kitchen not really saying much just taking the time to reflect on what happened. None of them wanted to go anywhere or do anything in fear that they would miss the kidnapper’s next call and word on how Lance was doing. They went their own separate ways so they could be alone or do their own thing. It was about noon when the phone rang.

JC had just gotten in from taking a dip in the pool, trying to clear his mind. He picked up the phone hesitantly know exactly who it would be from. "Hello."

"Here’s the deal: we’re going to give you the address of where to drop off the money and if you corporate well, you will be able to talk to your friend." Melanie explained.

JC agreed. "Ok. I suggest you write this down." Melanie instructed. "You will drop off the money in a brown paper bag at the willow tree on the corner of Turner and Sunset. Then afterwards we wait two hours to see if it’s legit and if so we drop off your friend but you already knew those details from our conversation yesterday. Have you contacted the police?"

"No." JC said with little hesitation.

"Good. I didn’t think you would but I had to be sure. Now give us a minute and we’ll put your friend on. We told him beforehand what he’s allowed to say and what he isn’t. If he says something we told him not to then he will suffer the consequences. So don’t push him into answering where we are located or anything like that. Got it?"

"Yes." JC breathed into the phone. All he wanted was to hear Lance’s voice to make sure that he was ok. He drummed his fingers nervously against the countertop as he waited. Then he heard a shaky, "Hello?"

"Lance?"

"JC?" Lance asked still in disbelief that he was allowed to talk to one of his brothers.

"Yeah it’s me, Lance. How are you? Did they hurt you?" JC fired off questions. He didn’t mean to it was just his fatherly instinct kicking in high gear.

"I’m fine. I just want to be home."

"We know you do. We’ll see you soon though. I promise. You’re coming home today." JC reassured.

Lance, however, wasn’t convinced. "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I am. We could never just leave you there." JC replied choking back tears.

"Thanks, Jace." Lance said.

"Lance I—" JC was cut off by Melanie. "That’s all the time I’m allowed to give you. You both did very well. Don’t forget the money needs to be at the spot by 2:00. Don’t be late." All JC was left hearing now was the dial tone. He knew that he didn’t have time to think and reflect like he did yesterday. There were things to be done. The first thing he did was call the police station to see if they got the location.

"Detective Bartley here."

"This is JC Chasez. I just got off the phone with the kidnappers."

"Ah, yes. You kept them on for almost three minutes but for us to track the location we need three minutes or more and they hung up before the three minutes. So unfortunately, we don’t have a location. We got everything on tape and heard all of it. We’ll have an undercover cop at the location just in case anything happens. Remember, we need you guys to go back to your house after you drop of the supposed money so we can reach you."

"Alright. Thank you, sir."

"Sure thing. Bye."

"Bye." JC hung up the phone and went to go change. After he did that, he told all of the others about the phone call and the plan. It was decided that Jc and Joey would go. JC got in the driver’s seat. He had refused to let Joey drive even though it was probably a better idea because JC was in no condition to drive at the state he was in.

It was completely silent on the way to their destination except for the radio, which was playing softly in the background to act as a diversion. JC was driving faster than the speed limit and he had a death grip on the steering wheel. It was so hard that his knuckles were white. Joey noticed this but said nothing knowing how hard this was to accept. They each handled it in their own way. It just so happened that JC’s way was staying up all night, spacing out, and being very paranoid.

They got there with plenty of time to spare. Joey got out of the car and stuck the empty bag, which was supposed to have money, in the hole of the willow tree. They both wanted to stay and see if the kidnappers would actually show up or not but they knew that they needed to be back at home so they could get wind of what’s going on. They headed home with Joey driving this time while JC looked blankly out the window. They arrived back at JC’s house and made themselves comfortable for a long wait.

As soon as Melanie hung up the phone with JC everything was kicked into full speed. They were four hours away from where they had told them to drop off the money so they had to get moving right away. John had untied Lance from the chair but kept his hands tied. He led Lance to the dark blue Cavalier and threw him into the back seat. Melanie and John sat in the front. They were on the main highway within 20 minutes.

Once they were on the highway, John spoke to Lance. He said, "Too bad you’ll never see your friends again."

Lance was confused. "What do you mean? You said that if they paid the money that I get to go home."

"Well I lied, obviously. This is just a scam. We never planned on letting you go. At least not until we got to Mexico." John explained and laughed at Lance’s shocked face that he could see in his rearview mirror. "Don’t look surprised. Deep down you knew that it wouldn’t happen. That’s why you didn’t believe your friend when he told you that you were coming home today."

With this said Lance was left to his thoughts for an hour and a half. He had been thinking about his brothers and how much he wanted to see them. During this whole time he had been contemplating the idea of him getting out of the car and walking the rest of the way. He knew that it would be dangerous because he might break something while he was rolling. But he also knew that he could live from this. After contemplating this he decided to do it. While John wasn’t looking he shimmied over to the door opened the handle. There were loud protests from John but Lance ignored him and jumped the best he could out of the car. He rolled down a hill, off of the highway, and into a wooden area.

His left arm smashed up against a tree trunk and he could feel it snap in half. The pain was excruciating. He could feel bruises starting to form all over his body. He laid on the ground for several minutes making sure that he was very well indeed still alive and that he wasn’t bleed severely. Once he was sure of these things, he used a large tree to support himself as he stood up. He was afraid that the kidnappers would turn the car around and come back for him so he decided to walk along the wood line. He knew that he had a long way to go before he would make it to JC’s. So he began his long trek along the woods, checking the signs every so often to see how much further he had to go. He was determined to make it home even if it killed him.

After walking for three hours Lance saw that he still had 15 miles to go which would take him another two hours. He found a rock and rested there for a few minutes. He was very exhausted. Walking through the woods was a lot harder than walking on a flat surface. Lance was to the point where he was going to give up but he knew he couldn’t especially if he only had 15 miles to go. He knew that his body was up to its limits especially since he hadn’t eaten for two days. He wished that he had money in his pockets so he could call the guys or get a ride but he didn’t and he knew he had to walk.

He repeated to himself I think I can, I think I can, over and over again. This might have seemed stupid at the time but it was just what he needed to keep himself moving. So he picked himself back up and continued to walk the rest of the way home with a new hope that he was almost there and that the kidnappers hadn’t come back for him. Finally, some things were starting to look up for him or so he thought. It started pouring. He still kept up a steady pace even though he was exhausted and he kept slipping in the mud. He prayed to God that he would be able to make it home alive.

It was almost 9 o’clock in the evening and the guys still hadn’t heard a word on Lance. The police station had called them and told them that the kidnappers did come to the stop but were disappointed to see there was no money and sped off. They said that they tried to catch them but they weren’t fast enough. The cops figured they were probably out of the state by now. They said that they would check local hospitals and things of that nature and give a call if they found him. So the four of them were sitting in the living room with a movie on to try to get their mind off things but they couldn’t help but worry about Lance.

"I’m worried." JC said for probably the hundredth time in the past seven hours. That’s all he seemed to say anymore. They all were and had no clue what to do except wait and that was the last thing they wanted to do. Suddenly the doorbell rang.

They all looked at each other in surprise. They weren’t expecting anyone and no one else knew about what was going on. So who could it be? Justin decided to answer it since he felt like he hadn’t done anything all day. He went over and opened the front door. At first he didn’t see anyone but then he looked down and saw Lance lying at the top of the stairs. From what he could see Lance was bruised from head to toe, extremely pale, and was caked with dirt and mud. Justin pulled Lance in and called for the guys.

"Hey guys! C’mere! Lance is home!"

A/N: All right, guys, one more chapter left. I'm glad you guys have been enjoying the story. I'll post the final chapter probably by the end of the week.