Everyone had been sitting in the waiting room for quite a while when Jessica's mom walked in.
"Give me one minute." Jessica said looking at her mother.
"Ok, I'll be out in the car."
"Well guys, I guess we have to go now." Jessica said turning her attention to them. "Oh wait, I'll be back in a sec."
She then turned around and started walking down the hall in order to catch up with Kat.
Katie looked down the hall and saw Jessica and Kat stopped in the middle of it, talking.
'I wonder what she's doing?' Katie thought to herself.
A few minutes later Jessica returned to the lobby.
"What was that about?" Katie asked.
"I was just seeing what time we could come back and visit, that's all." She responded.
"Jessica, you two don't need to come back." JC said looking up for the first time since Kat told them the news. "That can't be good for you. You've been here enough times as it is, and now that things are going well for you and Katie, you shouldn't come back here."
"JC, I want to come back." Jessica said.
"Me too." Katie said finally speaking up to the guys. "Besides, we kind of owe it to Justin, and you guys too."
"Really, you were all there by Katie's side when she was in the same situation."
"Yeah, and you also kept Jess company when she was down, that helped a lot."
"See, there's not much we can do for you guys. I mean, I was thinking about this on the way here. Being a younger girl, and a fan at that, there's not really anything I can do. I have nothing to offer." Jessica continued. "When you guys came here, it meant the world to us. I don't think me being here has the same impact, you know? But I still feel like we should be here. At least that way you won't be alone. I mean, I can't really call myself a good friend of yours, but now it's my chance to keep you company, and to show you that I'm really grateful for what you've done."
Nobody responded.
"So, we'll see you later." She said.
Katie and Jessica grabbed their coats and walked out the door.
"They have got to be two of the sweetest fans we've ever met." Lance said.
"Yeah." JC agreed. "I don't think there was any way that I would've changed Jessica's mind. I think that her and Katie were going to come no matter what. That's really nice of them."
"I can't get over the fact that they don't seem like fans. Is that weird to anyone else?" Joey asked. "It's not every day that your fans tell you that they feel obligated to visit one of the guys in the hospital, you know? Most fans don't feel like they owe us anything."
"Well, we don't know that for a fact, but they are two fans who actually tell us that." Lance said.
"Hey Chris…man, are you ok?" JC asked turning his attention to Chris who had been sitting quietly the whole time.
"Yeah, yeah I'll be all right." He answered quietly. "It's just, not to be mean, but I don't feel like talking about the girls right now. All I care about is that Justin, my best friend, gets out of this hospital. And I want time to visit him before the girls get back. I mean, sure it's nice that they want to come back, but they don't know him like we do. Is that really mean of me to say?"
"No. I get what you're saying. And I want the four of us to be with Justin by ourselves for a while too, but the girls can see him for a little bit. There's no harm there. Besides, they'll only be here for a short amount of time; we have the whole night to see Justin. So don't worry, we'll have our time, and everything will turn out all right." JC said.
"Yeah, because, don't get me wrong…I think the girls are so nice, but I just want to see Justin. I really want him to be ok." Chris got quieter. "I guess I just don't take things like this too well, huh?"
"It's all right, this is gonna be rough on all of us." Lance said.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The girls and Jessica's mom arrived at the house. Jessica had just gotten done explaining the situation to her mother, because she hadn't had time earlier when they were on the phone.
"That's terrible." Her mom said. "Did you get to see him before you left?"
"No. But, Kat, the doctor, said we could go back later tonight. That way we can at least see him for a little bit." Jessica continued. "But, I don't want to bother them, so we'll only stay for a little while."
"You know what though? You're not going to have a way to get there." Her mom said.
"Why can't I drive?" Jessica asked.
"Well, you know how the brakes on your car were making all of those noises?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, I guess your dad said they need more than just oil, there's something wrong with them, so he'll have to take a look at it."
"Well, why can't I drive another car?" Jessica asked confused.
"Wait, let's get out of the car and go in the house."
The girls and Jessica's mother got out of the van, and went inside to the kitchen.
"Ok, so tell me why can't I drive another car." Jessica said.
"Well, we all have plans, and we need some way to get around."
"Can't you drop us off or something?"
"Jess, did you forget…" Katie said before Jessica's mom had time to answer. "I have my car."
"Oh yeah, I completely forgot…you followed me home from gym." Jessica said. "How long were you planning on waiting to tell us…until I was about to call the hospital and tell the guys that we weren't coming, or what?"
"No actually, I was gonna wait until after you called the hospital…then later tonight…I was gonna jump up and yell, 'surprise! I have my car, let's go' or something like that. Wouldn't that have been fun?"
"You're so weird sometimes." Jessica said laughing.
"I try."
"Alright, well never mind then Mom, we've got a ride." Jessica said. "Come on Katie, let's go downstairs."
The girls walked down into Jessica's basement. It was all remodeled with carpeting, furniture, a TV, and the computer. It wasn't the normal basement with concrete floors and walls, it was a whole other room to the house.
They both sat down on the couch, just to relax a little and watch TV.
Not too long after that, Jessica's mom came down to ask them if they were hungry or anything. They were both starved, so they went upstairs to get some food.
After eating, they went back downstairs to watch TV, went online for a little bit, listened to music, and before they knew it, it was seven o'clock.
"Have we really been sitting in my basement that long?" Jessica asked.
"Oh come on, that wasn't long. Long is when you sit down in the basement from about eight at night until three in the afternoon the next day, you know?"
"Yeah." Jessica said laughing. "19 hours in the basement waiting for NSync to come on TV…yeah, I guess that beats this, huh?"
"I still can't believe that." Katie said laughing. "We waited up all night just to see 'I Drive Myself Crazy' on The Box, just because the video was still new, then we ended up waking up right when TRL started, and we saw it anyway…that was nuts!"
"Yeah it was…but it was fun too. We were so confused all the next day, our concept of time was all screwy." Jessica said laughing.
They sat there for a moment, just kind of laughing to themselves.
"Well, do you want to go visit Justin now, before it gets too late?" Jessica asked.
"Yeah, why don't we do that. We don't want to be hanging around there too long anyway."
Katie and Jessica both went upstairs.
"Mom, we're gonna go now, we shouldn't be gone too long." Jessica said.
"Ok, be careful though, there's supposed to be a really bad snow storm."
"We will be."
Katie and Jessica walked out the front door and to Katie's car. They both got inside, and Katie turned on the radio.
"There is a severe blizzard warning in affect until about eleven o'clock p.m. tonight for all residential areas near Cleveland." The DJ said. "We wanted to take the time to tell this to our listeners. If you are on the road, it is best that you get to where you are going with in the next hour."
