JC had gotten no sleep at all. He stood in the kitchen pacing back and forth. JC was beginning to regret putting Lance under house arrest. Now he didn't know where Lance was or what happened to him. What JC did know was that it was six o'clock in the morning and Lance still wasn't back. JC remembered noticing that Lance was gone when he went upstairs to talk to him at three in the afternoon.

JC was worried and was driving the others crazy. All of them were up too worried about their friend to sleep. Finally Joey couldn't take anymore of JC's pacing and said, "C, will you please stop pacing? You're going to put a hole in the floor." Joey was trying to make a joke out of this stressful situation. JC had stopped long enough to let what Joey said sink in and then sat down at the kitchen table next to Justin.

"Do you think he's ok wherever he is?" Justin asked to no one in particular.

"I hope to God he is, but I don't know if he will be when I see him." JC responded. Everyone could tell that JC was losing his patience with Lance. Chris was about to say something to challenge what JC just said but the phone rang before Chris even got a chance to get a word out. JC jumped out of the chair he was in and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Is this Mr. Chasez?"

"This is he. May I ask who's calling?"

"I'm Doctor Skyler from Mercy Hospital." The female voice said. "I'm calling about a friend of yours. I think his name is Lance Bass."

"Oh my God. Thank you so much for calling. We'll be right over." JC hung up the phone and grabbed his keys off of the counter.

"Come on, guys. We got to go." JC said as he ran for the front door. The others had no other choice but to follow JC if they wanted to find out what was going on.

"Who called?" Chris asked once everyone was situated in JC's car.

"One of the doctors from the hospital. They have Lance." JC replied.

"Well is he ok?" Justin asked from the backseat.

"I'm not sure. I didn't ask. I just figured we'd find out when we got there." JC said speeding through the neighborhood to get to the hospital as fast as he could. JC was no longer angry but worried. He knew that if Lance was in the hospital that it must not be something good. The rest of the car ride was silent, all of them praying that Lance was ok. They pulled into the parking lot and jumped out of the car as soon as JC had parked in the space. JC and Justin were the first ones into the hospital. They waited for Joey and Chris who weren't far behind and went to the front desk.

The receptionist behind the desk was busy typing away on the computer. She looked up when she saw four men approach her desk. "Can I help you gentlemen?"

"Yes, actually you can. We're looking for what room our friend is in." JC said speaking up.

"Name?"

"Lance Bass." Justin supplied. The receptionist nodded and typed the name into the computer.

"Your friend is upstairs on the third floor in room 315." She replied cheerfully.

"Thank you." JC said as he and the guys walked to the elevator. Chris pushed for the third floor. JC was more worried now than he was when they had first entered. Chris noticed something was wrong with JC, but figured that he was just worried about Lance. Chris didn't want to say something that would upset anyone any further than they already were.

This floor is for patients who got hurt pretty bad but will recover. It's probably just a precaution. I'm sure nothing is really wrong with Lance, Jc assured himself as the elevator doors opened to their floor. The four of them walked down the long hallway until they got to room 315. JC paused at the door and after a moment opened it. The others followed him in. When they walked in they saw Lance lying in the white hospital bed looking almost as white as the sheets with bandages wrapped around his head. Lance seemed to be sleeping.

Joey, Chris, and Justin walked over to Lance's bedside while JC went to the foot of the bed to check out what Doctor Skyler had observed. JC read over what the doctor had wrote. When JC was finished he walked over to the group to relay the information that he just gathered from the medical sheet. Chris, Justin, and Joey noticed JC's presence and gave him their full attention.

"Guys, it said on the chart that Lance has multiple bruises over his body. It also mentions that he's suffered from a mild concussion. The last thing that really sticks out to me was how much alcohol was in Lance's system. Lance had consumed so much that he needed his stomach pumped." This news had startled the guys to say the least.

"How could this have happened?" Joey asked after a few minutes.

JC just shrugged because his guess was as good as Joey's. "I'm not sure but we'll find out." The guys all nodded when there was a rustling sound of sheets coming beneath them. They all turned their heads to watch Lance's eyelids flutter and then fully open showing his dull, glazed green eyes.

Lance eyed every one of them before saying, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." It was hardly above a whisper but everyone had heard what he said. Lance's head pounded so bad that Lance would close his eyes every once in a while to relieve the pain a bit before opening them again. No one really knew what to say. They had all thought of a ton of things that they were going to say once they saw Lance but all of that was thrown out the window once they saw how delicate he was. Lance realized during this silence that he was his old self; the good ole Lance that everyone knew.

"It's alright. We're just glad that you're ok. You have no idea how worried we were about you." Justin spoke breaking the silence once again.

"I'm sorry I scared you guys like that. I don't really know what I was thinking. I couldn't really control it though." Lance replied.

"What do you mean you couldn't control it?" JC asked thinking that Lance was trying to blame this on something or someone other than himself.

"Just what I said; I couldn't. As crazy as that sounds, I couldn't. You'll think I'm crazy if I try to give you an explanation."

"Try us." Chris said trying to get Lance to finally open up to him and the others.

"I don't know. I'm afraid you guys won't be my friend if I tell you. Most of all I think I'm afraid of your reaction. I'm afraid you'll put me in an insane asylum and throw away the key." Lance replied trying not to lose hold of his emotions. Lance had it in his mind that that's what would happen to him if he told the guys.

They were shocked to have heard that come from Lance. They had no idea why Lance thought that way or how he came up with that idea.

"You know that's absurd. We'd never do that to you, Lance. We're always going to be your friend no matter what. So why don't you go ahead and tell us." Chris said trying to knock some sense into Lance. Lance was happy that that's what the guys felt. He still was a little skeptical and was about to open his mouth to protest once again when the door opened. All five of them looked up; it was the doctor.

"Oh good. I'm glad you're awake, Lance. I'm your doctor. My name is Skyler." Skyler said. "And I'm guessing you're his friends? Which one of you did I talk to earlier on the phone?"

"It was me." JC replied. "My name is JC Chasez. I'm a doctor here too." JC reached out and shook hands with Skyler.

"I know I've heard so much about you. You're an excellent doctor."

"Thank you." JC blushed slightly but quickly recovered to introduce Skyler to the rest of the gang.

"Now I'm guessing that you already looked over my chart?" Skyler asked JC. JC nodded. "Ok, good. I'm assuming everyone else knows too?" There were nods all around.

"I don't know." Lance spoke up suddenly.

"Well then we should tell you. You have multiple bruises, had a mild concussion, and a large amount of alcohol in your system. There was so much of it that we had to pump your stomach so it wouldn't kill you or counteract with the medication we've given you." Skyler said looking directly at Lance.

"That explains the headache and why my stomach hurts." Lance commented.

"Right. You should only have to be here for one more day. We want to make sure you're in the best of health before we send you home." Skyler told Lance as well as everyone else in the room. She looked at her watch and looked back at Lance. "I have to go check up on some other patients but I'll be back to do a full examination on you." The guys thanked the doctor as she walked out the door.

"You still owe us an explanation as to how all this happened." JC reminded. Lance sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Can I talk to Chris alone?" Lance pleaded. JC looked skeptical while Joey and Justin looked understanding.

"Sure. We need some coffee anyway. Especially C. He's been up for the past 24 hours." JC began to object, but realized it was no use and followed Justin and Joey out of the room.

Once they were gone Chris said, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to tell you what happened last night. I just didn't want the guys to hear just yet." Lance explained.

"Ok, go ahead. I won't say anything until you're done." Lance smiled. This is why he chose Chris. Chris had more patience and understanding.

Lance had told Chris everything. Even all the way back to when the nightmares first occurred and he started hearing his subconscious. Chris listened intently waiting until Lance was finished before he said anything.

"My God, Lance. How did you keep something like that to yourself? You should have come to me sooner and we could've prevented this." Chris said indicating where Lance was now. Lance nodded slowly.

"I know. I was just scared. I think I just totally lost it when JC took my car keys and didn't trust me."

"Well you can put some of that blame on me because I approved of it. We knew something was up but you wouldn't tell us. We just wanted what was best for you."

"I hate how everyone thinks they know what's best for me. They have no idea what I've been through. It's horrible to wake up from nightmares that break you out into a cold sweat and then have people tell you it's going to be ok when they don't have a clue what they're talking about. This is why I didn't want to tell anyone." Lance exasperated.

"You needed to tell someone, Lance. Look how much stress it put on you. We can help you now that we know. We can get you the best help available." Chris said.

"So you think I'm crazy?" Lance practically shouted. "I knew it. I knew this was going to happen. I think I am going crazy. I had to have gone crazy to tell you about what's going on with me." Chris sighed deep. He wasn't expecting this kind of reaction from Lance.

"Lance, I don't think you're crazy. Take deep breaths. We'll stop talking about this for now. Get some sleep." Lance's eyes, which a minute ago had been bright green full of anger and fright were now the way they were before; dull and glazed. Lance listened to Chris by taking deep breaths letting all the anger flow out of his body. The anger was replace with exhaustion. Lance was asleep peacefully within minutes. Chris sighed. He knew what he had to do but he didn't want what happened just now to happen when he would make Lance tell the others. It wasn't Chris's job to tell them, it was Lance's. So Chris was leaving it up to Lance. Chris could only hope that Lance would see things his way and let him and the others help.

A/N:  No cliffhanger, yay! Again thanks to everyone for reviewing. I love reading your comments. Until next time!