Chapter One
Sliding into the seat on the plane, he grasped the seatbelt and pulled it tight, his hands immediately moving to grip the arm rests. Though he’d spent a large chunk of his adult life on an airplane, it hadn’t lessened his fear of flying. The sound of the flight attendant’s voice came over the speaker system, requesting that all passengers take their seats and buckle up, before giving a gentle reminder that all electronic equipment needed to be shut off.
Lifting his hips slightly, he removed his cell phone and punched the power button, returning it to his pocket once the power was off. He leaned his head back against the plush first class seat and screwed his eyes shut, willing sleep to come, though he knew it wouldn’t.
While he was often labeled as the “silly” one within the group by fans (though, he supposed management was the one who’d given him that role, in a time when there was a certain ‘boy band’ formula to follow), the title had been inaccurate at best. At least, it wasn’t always accurate.
Like now, for example. The visit home had been weighing heavily on his mind, since he pulled out of the driveway, while he watched as his cousin waved him on, that sad smile she tried so hard to hide clearly evident on her face (clearly evident to him, anyway, seeing as how well he knew her).
“Ah, Kate,” he thought, running a hand through his hair. Though nearly seven years his junior, Kate had always been his favorite cousin, he’d always held a special place for her, above all others. She was like another sister to him and he knew she felt the same about him. He’d always been able to get through to her, when no one else could. His only regret was that he’d not been there for her when she needed him the most, though he had vowed that it would change.
He wasn’t quite sure how, and really, he wasn’t sure if the time would come where she would need to lean on him. Or even if she’d call if that time came. He doubted it. While he knew Kate loved him as a sibling, he was sure that she’d often felt let down and disappointed by him.
It was a hard thought to handle.
Heaving a sigh, he sat fully upright in his seat feeling much better about the flight now that they were off the ground and no longer bouncing around like a jumping bean. Leaning back once more, he offered the passing flight attendant a smile, though it went no further than his lips. The slight ding indicating that an announcement was to be made caught his attention as he ears perked up slightly. He listened in as the flight attendant announced that the captain had turned off the seat belt light.
Deciding that this was his opportunity, he removed his seatbelt and stood, reaching into the overhead compartment to pull a Steelers cap from his bag, tugging it down over his short brown hair. Closing the compartment, he dropped himself into the seat and yanked the hat down over his eyes, leaning back. Perhaps now, sleep would come.
Though he wasn’t counting on it.
~*~
Exiting the terminal, with his carry-on in hand, he heaved a sigh. He was glad to have both feet firmly back on the ground. The flight had been an uneventful one as far as he was concerned, though he never did get that nap he’d been hoping for.
Hoisting his bag up onto his shoulder, he glanced around at the sea of people, trying to spot the familiar face. He grinned when he finally found what he was looking for, and made his way over, pausing only momentarily to adjust his cap. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem Chris.” The response was genuine, and he knew that it really hadn’t been a problem. Clapping a hand on his younger friend’s shoulder, Chris offered him a genuine smile as they started making their way through the crowd.
In no time at all, the two men exited the airport, Chris heaving yet another sigh, though this one born of relief. He was glad to be back in Florida. “I’m tellin’ ya, man. There’s nothing quite like going back home, and I wish I could have stayed longer, but… I’m glad to be back.”
“How were…things?”
Chris took a moment to ponder the question before turning his gaze back to his brunette friend. If someone had told Chris that one of his best friends would be a person who was the complete polar opposite of him, he would have laughed in their face. But that’s exactly what JC Chasez was.
While Chris tended to be more loud and obnoxious, JC was often shy and reserved, never really opening up until he got to know someone. He was so different than Chris, and yet, they were strangely similar. Chris was close with all of the guys, but the bond between him and JC was just different, somehow.
“Chris? If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand,” JC said, frowning slightly when Chris had yet to respond.
“No,” Chris said, shaking his head. “I was just…” he shook his head to rid himself of the thought. “Never-mind. Things were good,” he said with another forced smile.
Though he considered himself to be ridiculously close with his band mates, he’d never been open and honest with them about the part of his life that was Kate. Perhaps by sharing his fears and worries about his younger cousin, that it would make them all the more real to him. Whatever the reason, he’d yet to talk to them about her, and as far as he was concerned, it was going to stay that way.
Or at least, he’d planned on it staying that way until Kate went and completely changed everything in the course of a twenty-four hour period.
~*~
The silence was almost unnerving, he decided as he reached for the remote and turned the television on. He had no real purpose for doing so, other than serving as a much needed distraction. The pizza he’d had delivered an hour prior sat on the coffee table, the lid to the box open, yet the pizza untouched.
He sank back against the couch, dropping his head back to the ceiling, feeling quite lost and unsure of what to do at this point.
The three phone calls he’d just received had sent his mind reeling. The first had been from a very frantic, very distressed Kate. He’d been unable to make heads or tails of the conversation, though one thing was certain: his cousin was highly upset.
He’d done everything in his power to calm her down, having begged her to just relay to him what was wrong, but apparently, he’d not said the right thing, because she had screamed at him that he just didn’t understand before slamming the phone down in his ear.
The call had left him dumbfounded, to say the least, though it hadn’t been long before the phone rang once more. This time, she was sobbing quietly, though she was no longer ranting and raving at him, and her message was clear: she needed him.
She begged him to allow her to come and stay with him, just for a little bit, to get away from her parents. He wasn’t quite sure what the problem was, due to the fact that her parents were wonderful people. They did everything in their power to take care of Kate, to make her happy, and he didn’t know why, all of a sudden, she wanted to get as far away from them as possible.
Until she’d hung up and her mother called back. Aunt Elisabeth had always been somewhat a pillar of strength to Chris. There had been times when it seemed like the world was crumbling around her, and she simply carried on. To hear the sadness in her voice as she spoke to him was heart breaking.
“She’s not getting any better, Chris,” Aunt Elisabeth had told him. “In fact, she’s getting worse. Her father and I have pleaded with her. We’ve begged, we’ve threatened, we’ve done everything short of having her put away. She’s not taking her medicine, and we just don’t know what to do anymore,” she’d whimpered into the phone, her voice cracking.
He’d listened to Aunt Elisabeth just cry for a good ten minutes, offering consoling words, though never knowing exactly what to say. Once she’d assured him that she was okay, he let her go, though only after making her promise that if she needed to talk, she’d call back.
And then the silence had consumed him.
A billion thoughts had raced through his head, though he’d been unable to come to a conclusion. Or at least, not to a realistic one.
The obvious choice was to have his cousin put away. If she was behaving so badly, there was no way in Hell that Uncle George and Aunt Elisabeth would be able to control her much longer, especially if she’d gone off of her medicine. But at the same time, he knew his aunt and uncle would be unable to live with themselves if they’d shipped her off, and it would just confirm the things she’d accused them of: namely, not caring about her.
Perhaps honoring her wishes and having her come stay with him would be for the best, but would he be able to handle it? Would she be any more willing to listen to him than she listened to her parents? He stopped himself at that thought.
Perhaps that was Kate’s whole problem. Kate was a grown woman. An intelligent, grown woman, at that, and yet she was treated as if she was a child. Aunt Elisabeth and Uncle George, while their intentions were good, they treated her as if she hadn’t the sense to care for herself.
“We all do,” he whispered.
~*~
“And… stop!”
The single word sounded much like the Hallelujah Chorus to Chris as he sank down on the hardwood floor, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. “I am… entirely…too old for this @#%$!” He panted, closing his eyes as he dropped an arm over his eyes, blocking out the light.
“Yeah, you are,” Justin said, though he too dropped to the floor, feeling quite out of breath. With the impending tour, it was imperative for the boys to get back in shape and quick. Which meant grueling practices with the choreographer, otherwise known as “Satan”.
“I think we’re about done for the day,” Wade announced, slapping his hands together. “Lance, I need you to hang on a minute though,” he said. “I just want to show you one quick thing I noticed you were doing wrong.”
The collective snicker at Lance’s misfortune caused the blonde haired, green-eyed singer to groan and roll his eyes. “Why’s it always gotta be the Mississippian?” He whimpered, though pushed himself to his feet.
Pushing himself up as well, Chris wiped his hands on his pants before addressing the three remaining men. “I think I’m going to get going,” he said. “I’ve got some stuff to take care of, but would you guys maybe want to meet up later on down at Johnny’s for a beer? I’ve uh, got something I want to talk to everyone about.”
Frowning slightly at his friend’s behavior, JC was the first to speak. “Everything okay?”
“What? Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine,” he said with a slight nod. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind. But how about it? Johnny’s at eight-ish?”
“Sounds good to me,” Joey agreed, slapping Chris on the back. “I’ll be there.”
“I don’t think I can stay long, but count me in too,” Justin said with a nod.
With a satisfied nod, Chris turned his attention to JC. “Think you can make it?” He asked.
“Yeah,” JC said. “I’ll be there.”
“Good,” Chris said, offering his friends a smile. “Someone make sure to fill Lance in and I’ll see y’all around eight.”
Watching him go, JC didn’t take his eyes off of Chris until the door closed behind him. “Did he seem weird to you?”
“We’re talking about Chris, right? When is he NOT weird?”
Rolling his eyes at Justin, Joey turned his attention to JC. “I kind of got that vibe too. Like something was amiss,” he confirmed. “Is everything alright?”
“I don’t know,” JC said with a quiet sigh. “But I guess we’ll find out tonight.”
~*~
Pulling into the parking lot of the seedy little bar, Chris climbed out of his vehicle and locked the car. The bar was not a place you’d expect to see five young pop stars, though that’s what Chris loved about it. Heading towards the entrance, he was pleased to see Justin’s vehicle, as well as Joey’s. He went on inside, spotting the two at a table near the back.
He made his way back there, offering them a half-hearted grin as he sank down into the chair. “Heard from JC or Lance?” He asked, somewhat anxious to get the impromptu meeting started.
“Yup,” Justin said with a nod. “Lance is about five minute away, and JC’s just leaving his house. Baron got out of the back yard and he had to chase him down, but he said he’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”
“Great,” Chris said somewhat sarcastically. “I’m going to get a beer. Anyone want anything?” He asked, though he didn’t wait for a response as he stood, heading for the bar.
It was fifteen minutes later, exactly, when JC strolled through the doors. Chris’s beer still sat untouched as he offered his friend a weak smile. “Thanks for joining us,” he joked.
“Hey,” JC said, holding his hands up in protest. “It wasn’t my fault. Baron got out and I had to chase him, and then I had to change and—“ Shaking his head, he dropped himself into the remaining seat. “So what’s up? What’s this little get together about?”
“Well,” Chris said, suddenly finding his bottle of beer to be quite interesting. “I just… I know we’re about to head out on tour soon, but uh, I think my cousin’s going to come stay with me for a bit. And if she does, she’ll obviously have to come along, so I just… wanted to run it by everyone, and make sure that it’s okay.”
“That’s it?” JC asked somewhat incredulously. “You know you don’t have to ask permission to have someone come along with you,” he said, wrinkling his nose as if it were the most preposterous thought he’d ever heard.
“Well!” Chris said, somewhat defensively. “I wanted to make sure,” he said with a shrug. “There is a little thing called consideration, you know?” Shaking his head, he took a quick sip of his beer. “So everyone’s okay with it?”
“Absolutely,” was the collective agreement.
Once the matter of Kate coming on tour with them had been discussed, and Chris was certain that everyone agreed to it, he announced that he needed to head out. He felt a bit @#%$ for dragging his friends out, only to ditch them once the matter had been settled, but he had a phone call to make.
And if he knew Kate, it was going to be a long call.
~*~
“Chris, I don’t think you fully understand what you’re offering,” Aunt Elisabeth said, her voice unusually sharp at the suggestion made by her nephew.
“Aunt Beth,” Chris said, heaving a gentle sigh as he tried reasoning with her. “Do you think I’ve not gone through every aspect of this in my mind? I wouldn’t have called and asked you if I didn’t think it could be good for Kate. It’s what she wants.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants, Chris! She called you last night, in a fit of rage. She had no idea what she was saying and—“
“When are you going to start giving her the credit she deserves?” The question was spoken quietly, but to Aunt Elisabeth, it felt as he’d shouted and slapped her in the face. Realizing that throwing around accusations would not get him anywhere, Chris immediately apologized. “Aunt Beth, I didn’t mean that. All I’m saying is that Kate’s a big girl. And I know you and Uncle George are doing the best you can, I do. But you said last night, you’ve done everything short of putting her in an institution, and I know that’s not what you want to do.”
“I don’t know what to do for her, Chris,” she responded, her voice breaking.
“Let her go,” he said softly. “I’m not suggesting you toss her out on the streets. But she asked me last night, after she’d calmed down, if she could come stay with me for awhile. And what could it hurt? Worst case scenario is that she gets here and hates it, and I put her on another flight back home. At least then, she’ll see that you respect her wishes.”
Aunt Elisabeth hesitated slightly on the other end. “And you’re positive that this is a task you’re willing to take on? I don’t want Kate to become a burden to you or—“
“Hey,” Chris said, his tone a little sharper than he intended, “she could NEVER be a burden to me.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I just… I don’t know what I’m saying anymore,” she said, heaving a sigh.
“I understand, Aunt Beth. But I really think it’s for the best. I’m not claming to be some kind of a miracle worker, but you know my relationship with Kate’s always been special. I think it’ll be good for her.”
“I’ll have to talk it over with George,” she said, and Chris’s insides gave an excited squirm. “And then of course, I’ll mention it to Kate. If they both agree… well, you’ll be hearing back from me soon.”
“Thank you Aunt Beth.”
“Don’t thank me, Chris. But if everything goes according to your plan, I expect I’ll be thanking you.”
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