Chapter 33

Chris rolled over in his bed and glanced at the red numbers glowing on his clock...3:20 a.m. Chris rolled his eyes and groaned as he slowly sat up in his bed and threw his covers to the side.

“Might as well go downstairs and raid the refrigerator,” he said quietly, rubbing his eyes. He slowly stood up and made his way over to the dresser. He searched through one of the drawers until he finally found something that he could wear. Stepping back, he pulled a pair of sweatpants on over his boxers then pulled a t-shirt over his head, before he headed out of his bedroom into the dimly lit hallway. As Chris walked down the hallway he slowed down at each doorway and listened to see if he was the only one awake. Hearing no sounds from any of the rooms, Chris descended the stairs then stepped into the living room and saw light streaming into the room from the kitchen.

“Humph,” he muttered. “Guess someone else got the munchies too...but who?”

Not wanting to scare whoever was in the kitchen, Chris yawned aloud and stretched noisily as he entered the room, giving who ever it was fair warning that someone else was up.

Chris turned the corner and saw that both Lance and Joey were sitting on the island in the middle of the kitchen dipping spoons into an open tub of ice cream that sat between them.

“Hey Crazy…didn’t expect you to be up,” Joey said as he waited for Lance to finish dipping his spoon in the ice cream so that he could have his turn. When Lance had finished, Joey winced as he ran his spoon over the ice cream then turned to Lance, “Man…this ice cream is hard to get out of the tub.” His hands were beginning to ache.

“Hands starting to bother you?” Lance asked as he took Joey’s spoon from him to dig it through the ice cream before handing it back.

“Yeah…I guess I need another pill,” Joey said then licked the ice cream off his spoon.

“Got them,” Chris said as he picked up the bottle of pills sitting on the counter that he walking by.

“Need a glass of water too?”

“Yeah…if you don’t mind,” Joey answered.

Chris quickly got Joey his glass of water, opened the pill bottle and handed one of the pills over to him.

“Thanks,” Joey said quietly as he took the pill and offered glass of water. Chris put the bottle of pills back on the counter and took care of Joey’s glass once he had finished with it.

“Man…I’ll be glad when Dr. Shannon takes these bandages off,” Joey said. “I hate having to get you guys to do everything for me,” he added.

“Nah…don’t worry about it,” Chris said as he walked back over to the island.

“Couldn’t sleep Chris?” Lance asked as he opened a drawer behind him and pulled out a spoon for Chris who took it then dipped it into the ice cream.

“Yeah…too many thoughts going through my head I guess,” Chris quietly commented before popping the ice cream laden spoon into his mouth. He heard a giggle from Joey.

“Wha?” Chris commented with his mouth full of ice cream.

“Thoughts and your head just don’t go together at…um…3:30 in the morning,” Lance commented for Joey, wincing as he looked at the clock on the stove.

“Well…it happens sometimes,” Chris said wryly. Lance snorted at the remark while Joey continued to giggle.

Joey handed his spoon to Lance who once again dipped it for him into the tub of ice cream before dipping his own.

“So…what’s kept you guys up?” Chris walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a couple of sodas then stopped at a cabinet and grabbed a couple of tall glasses before returning to the island.

“Pretty much the same thing as you,” Lance quietly commented as he grabbed one of the sodas. He popped it open and took several sips as he watched Chris make a coke float.

“Like what?” Chris asked.

“What to do about JC and Emilianne and the pool,” Joey answered as he hopped back up on the island and grabbed the remaining can of soda after Chris had opened it for him. “I mean…somehow…we need to help him learn not to be afraid of the pool.”

“Yeah…but how?” Chris asked before taking a sip of his drink. 

”Well…Jan helped me with my fear by letting me know that I couldn’t keep running away from something that was going to be there no matter what,” Lance quietly answered. Then he told them of what Jan had told him about Mike’s accident and how she saw what had happened.

“Gosh…how does she do it…how does she stay so strong?” Chris said in awe after hearing Lance’s story. He had known a little bit of what had happened to Jan’s husband Mike, but not the full story until now.

For several minutes the three young men sat very quietly, eating ice cream. They were all lost in their own thoughts.

Chris…his thoughts leaning toward Jan’s amazing strength.

Joey…his thoughts returned to his own conversation with Jan about a year ago.

Lance…debating with himself…should he tell the others more? He wanted the others to truly realize how hard it was for Jan to move forward after her husband’s death. He wanted them to know what Jan said that was the turning point for him in learning to deal with his own fears. He finally decided to go ahead and tell them…hoping that Jan would understand…knowing that Jan would understand.

“Um…that’s not all of it,” Lance added. Joey’s eyebrows rose with that information.

“Really? That’s all I heard about,” he said, curious as to what else Jan could have said.

Lance cleared his throat as he began doubt his decision in telling his friends what he knew and took several more sips of his drink as he further debated about whether or not to tell Joey and Chris what Jan had told him.

Chris seemed to sense his unease and quickly tried to relieve Lance of any feeling that he had to tell them anything.

“You know…what she told you…you don’t have to tell us if you think you’d be breaking a confidence or anything.” 

”No…she didn’t say that I couldn’t tell you…just keep it to yourself though…okay?” Lance said quietly.

Both Chris and Joey nodded their heads in agreement and leaned in closer to Lance as they waited for him to begin.

“After Mike’s accident, his family set up one of those little white crosses on the highway in his memory.”

“Oh,” Joey said quietly. “But what’s so bad about that?” 

”The cross is on Interstate 10 and she travels that route whenever she comes out here to see us or her in-laws and whenever she does any kind of running around,” Lance answered.

“Oh…so she sees it and it’s a reminder of…” Chris began.

“What she saw that night…” Joey added, his voice fading away.

“Just like the pool is a reminder for me of happened to JC,” Lance said quietly. He cleared his throat and brought his drink up to his lips and took several sips.

“And…the pool serves as a reminder for Jace,” Chris said. “But Justin…he’s okay with the pool now. I mean…for a while he wouldn’t even get in the pool unless Lynn or one of us was right there, but now he’ll go out there and swim while nobody is around.” 

”Yeah…I know…but I don’t think he was as scared of it as JC is,” Lance said softly.

“This is going to be tough…but we’ll come up with something,” Joey said sleepily. The pain pill that he had taken was beginning to grab hold of his senses, causing his eyelids to grow heavy along with his limbs.

Both Lance and Chris noticed Joey’s features beginning to relax and how quietly he was beginning to speak.

“Ready to go back upstairs Joey?” Chris asked as he placed the lid back on the ice cream container and put it back in the freezer.

“Yeah,” Joey murmured as he slid down off the counter and slowly walked out of the room with Lance at his side.

“I’ll clean up in here,” Chris commented. “Go ahead and get him upstairs, Lance. I’ll be up in a few.”

“Good night, Chris,” Lance said quietly before leaving the room to follow Joey up the stairs.

“Night,” Chris answered before turning to rinse off what few things they had used then placed the items in the dishwasher.

Once finished, Chris quietly left the room, turning lights off behind him before making his way upstairs. Hopefully, sleep would come easier for him this time.

It was after lunch the same day when the phone rang. Justin trotted down the stairs into the living room to answer it.

“Hello?” he said as he dropped onto the sofa.

“Um…is this…um…well…I’m David Lewis and Dr. Shannon said that I might be able to reach Joshua Chasez at this phone number.”

At the mention of the man’s name, along with JC’s, Justin quickly sat up straight.

“Oh…hi, Mr. Lewis. My name is Justin Timberlake. JC isn’t here right now. Would you like for me to take a message for you and page him? He could call you back within a few minutes.”

“No…no…I don’t want to disturb him in any way,” David said quickly. “I’ll just leave you with my phone number and he can call me back later. We just want to know how he’s been doing since last week in Dr. Shannon’s office.”

Justin knew that he could tell the Lewis’s how JC was doing, but since he didn’t know exactly how much information would be too much, he opted to let JC speak for himself.

“Um…let me get a piece of paper and a pen,” Justin replied. He set down the receiver and left the room. With a minute or two, he had returned and written down the phone number that Mr. Lewis had supplied.

“I’ll let JC know that you called Mr. Lewis when he gets in this evening from the studio,” Justin said with a small smile on his face that was evident in his tone of voice.

“I’d really appreciate that…and please call me David.” 

”Oh…okay David.”

“Bye, Justin.”

“Good bye, David.”

Justin replaced the receiver on its cradle and decided to lay the phone number upstairs on JC’s pillow since he figured JC would head up to his bedroom just as soon as he would get home later that evening as he had been doing for the last several nights or so.

With a shake of his head, Justin got up from the couch and carried the small slip of paper up to JC’s room. He quickly entered the room and laid the paper on JC’s pillow before leaving the room to head back downstairs to the kitchen to fix himself a small snack all the while thinking of JC.

For the better part of the week, JC had fallen into a pattern of work that Justin found to be exhausting just to think about, much less keep up with. JC was getting up by 7:00 in the morning to head to Jive studios by 8:00 to work on some recordings that the group had made a few months ago. He was staying at Jive until 10 or 11:00 at night then would drag himself home and without so much as a few words to the rest of the group, who was still staying at Justin’s, along with Jan, he would head for his room to crash only to repeat the routine all over again the next day.

It was getting to be so bad, not seeing JC on a regular basis, that Jan and Chris stood earlier this morning in front of a picture of JC hanging in the hallway, just looking at it.

Lance and Justin had happened upon them and asked them what they were doing. Jan, in a deadpan voice said that she and Chris were looking at the picture to remember what JC looked like since neither of them had seen him in several days.

Justin recalled that at the time, the remark was funny and everyone had had a good laugh, but now, it wasn’t so funny anymore. The rest of the group was beginning to get back in the swing of things also, but not at JC’s pace. They were all busy with their own projects along with writing songs for their upcoming album as well as collecting songs that they could possibly consider recording. Everyone had spent some time at Jive but JC was spending enough time there for the entire group and everyone was becoming a little more than concerned. Something would have to give in the end and everyone was hoping that it wouldn’t be JC’s health.

The entire group had spoken with JC individually, trying to get him to slow down his pace, but each had been politely told that he was okay and to mind their own business. In their eyes they couldn’t do that, but they were at a complete loss as to how to convince JC that he needed to rest.

It was Lance who finally came up with a little game plan that he shared with the others and Johnny Wright. They could all tell that JC was running on reserves now and it was only a question of when those reserves would finally run out. Lance sat down with their manager and the two worked together and came up with a solution that would help somewhat…a sort of temporary band-aid, but a plan none the less that would help JC somewhat.

Two days later it was decided to give the plan a go. JC was still carrying on with his relentless, self-imposed schedule. It was 8:00 in the evening and he was still bent over a control panel in one of the many recording studios in Jive’s headquarters.

JC pinched the bridge of his nose as he took a deep breath. Things were not running smoothly. He just couldn’t find the right sound and his frustration was growing.

“Why is this so hard?” he said aloud to himself. “Man…this is usually the fun part.” He pushed several more buttons and listened to a playback of a song that the group had recorded a few months ago.

Carefully, he ran his hands over a multitude of buttons and sliding switches as he attempted to create the sound that was in his mind on the tape.

Finally, with a strangled cry of frustration, JC dropped his head to his hands and pushed his rolling chair back away from the control panel. He stayed in that position for a minute or two then leaned back in the chair and swung his arms over his head. He then rolled his tired shoulders and stiff neck, trying to work out the kinks that had developed from being bent over in the same position for most of the day.

He quietly hummed the tune that he had been listening to for the better part of two days as he continued to stretch. After several minutes of stretching, JC stood up and bent over the control panel to once again try to work toward the illusive sound.

Lance stood in the doorway of the lounge area, which was a room right outside the control booth and recording room. He had been there long enough to see that JC was bordering on exhaustion and that worried him immensely. He entered the lounge area and then slowly made his way over to the open door of the control room. JC was concentrating so deeply on what he was doing that he didn’t hear Lance’s approach. Lance stood in the doorway a few moments watching and listening to JC mutter under his breath before he decided to make his presence known.

“You know…when you’re tired, your judgment can be off,” Lance said quietly.

At the sound of Lance’s low voice, JC jumped and quickly turned, almost losing his balance in the process.

Lance was immediately at his side and helped JC to sit down in a nearby chair.

“Man…don’t scare me like that,” JC whispered once he had caught his breath. “What are you doing here?”

Lance looked sheepishly at JC. “I’m sorry for scaring you Jace…I really didn’t men to,” he apologized.

“Okay…but why are you here?” 

Lance remained standing at JC’s side and noticed for the first time just how tired JC really looked. There were dark circles under his bloodshot, puffy eyes and it even looked like JC may have lost weight, if that were even possible seeing how thin JC had always been.

JC watched Lance watching him and began to feel uneasy. He knew what Lance was probably thinking and he didn’t want to deal with his friend’s concern…not right now so he repeated his question.

“Lance…what are you doing here? Why aren’t you at home?” JC asked, pointing at his friend.

“Chris took Joey back to Dr. Shannon at around 5:00 for him to look at his left hand,” he answered. “It looks like a spot around his thumb might be getting infected or something. Then they were going to go out to eat somewhere.”

“Okay…and…?” JC urged as he gestured with his hands.

“Oh…Jan and Justin went out to run some errands and that kind of stuff. I came down here because it was too quiet at the house and I wanted some company.”

“Well…that was 3 hours ago, Lance,” JC said as he looked at the clock on the wall behind Lance and saw that it was just past 8:00.

“I’ve been driving around and decided to come up here,” Lance answered with a sheepish grin.

JC gave Lance a small smile as he pulled out the chair beside his and patted it. Lance shook his head at the offer.

“After you take a break, Jace,” Lance said. He saw indecision flash across JC’s face. “Ten minutes?” Lance added.

JC closed his eyes and gave Lance a small nod in agreement. “Buy you a coke,” JC said as he slowly rose from his chair and rifled through his pockets for some loose change.

“My treat,” Lance said as he produced a handful of change. He had come prepared. It was his intention to get JC to go with him to the small coffee bar/lounge area down the hallway and then to get JC to relax and possibly get some rest. He knew that JC would argue against going home so, this would be the next best thing…a quiet room with a couple of couches.

“Man…where is everybody? I thought a few of the other studios were being used today,” JC said as he and Lance made their way down the long deserted hallway.

Lance kept his eyes focused ahead of him so that JC would not see the look on his face as he answered the question.

“Well…it is 8:00 and most everyone has gone on home,” he commented as he walked beside JC as they turned a corner and continued walking down another long hallway toward a large room that housed several couches, restrooms, along with a snack machine and coke machine.

Both young men entered the coffee bar/lounge area and Lance walked over to the coke machine, pulled out a handful of change and bought them both some drinks. When he turned to take the drinks over to one of the couches, he noticed how relaxed JC looked sitting on the couch.

“Here,” Lance said as he handed the cold canned drink to JC before sitting on the other couch. The pair sat in silence for several minutes. JC seemed lost in thought and Lance was carefully watching to see if the next part of his plan was going to come into play. Seconds later, JC yawned and stretched. He placed his drink on the little table at the end of the couch.

“Tired?” Lance asked casually before taking another sip of his drink.

“Yeah…just a little,” JC offered as he slowly rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

“Well…why don’t you take a quick nap…you know…a power nap,” Lance said as he continued to watch JC who looked as if he could fall asleep at any moment.

“I guess I could, but I really need to get back to work. I’m sure those 10 minutes are probably up by now,” he said as he stretched once more.

“Nah…just relax for a few minutes…I mean…what could it hurt? The studio will still be there in 10 minutes…won’t it?” Lance asked, raising his eyebrows as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Well…I guess so…” JC said tiredly with a slight smile. He grabbed a small pillow from the other end of the couch then slowly laid down.

“You’ll wake me up in a few minutes…okay?” he asked Lance in a quiet voice.

“Yeah…I’ll wake you up,” Lance replied, making sure that he didn’t offer when exactly he’d wake his friend up.

Within a few minutes Lance could tell that JC had drifted off to sleep by the deep even breaths that he heard him taking. Lance waited at least 10 minutes before he very quietly got up from his seat and made his way over to the doorway. He stuck his head out the door and looked down the far end of the hallway to wave at the figure standing there.

Johnny waved back before taking the stairs back down to his office on a lower floor. He felt as if a load had been lifted from his shoulders…he had been terribly worried about JC himself, but was unsure of how to get the young man to slow down his frenetic pace long enough to take care of himself. He was more than relieved when Lance came to him with his little plan and he quickly worked with Lance to make sure that the plan was given a chance to succeed and it had. With a satisfied smile, the older man exited the stairs and made his way to his office.

Meanwhile, Lance reached over the side of the couch that he had been seated at and pulled out a thin blanket. He went over to JC’s couch and carefully placed it over his sleeping figure without even disturbing JC’s deep sleep. He then turned on a lamp on an end table beside his couch before turning off the room lights.

Lance then returned to his couch and pulled out several folders that he had laid on the floor with the blanket. He opened the first folder and pulled out the contract that was inside it then began reading over it. He planned on staying with JC until he would wake up on his own. If need be, he was ready to spend the night there…anything to make sure that JC got some real rest.

Lance stretched and glanced at his watch to see that it was almost 11:00. He looked over at the other couch and saw that JC had not moved a muscle during that entire time. Lance stood up and quietly walked over to where JC slept. He reached down and gently ran his hand over JC’s head then whispered, “Man…you must have been pretty tired Jace.”

When JC did not stir with his words or touch, Lance decided to step out of the room for a few minutes. He wanted something to drink and maybe a snack, but didn’t want to use the machines in the room where they were for fear of waking JC.

He decided to go down the hallway to an even larger lounge where he and the rest of the group spent a lot of their time in between recordings on a busy day.

Lance took his time going to the lounge and making his selections. It felt good to stand up for a while. As he slowly walked back down the hallway towards the room where JC was, he began going over the contracts that he had been studying in his mind. Although they were long and very detailed, Lance was enjoying the fact that he was becoming more accustomed to the legal jargon that the papers contained. The rest of the group could not really understand his need to study the documents, but after the whole Lou Pearlman fiasco, Lance was more than willing to familiarize himself with legal documents and they appreciated that fact. He was determined that the group would never face the same situation again and he did not want any of those artists who happened to sign on with Freelance Enterprises to have that experience either.

As Lance walked down the hallway, he passed a small sitting area and stopped to sift through several magazines that laid on a coffee table. He finally made his selections then continued to walk toward the lounge where JC was.

Lance made his way to the end of the hall and as he turned a corner, he heard a terrified scream coming from the lounge.

“Oh no…JC,” Lance said as he raced down the hallway.

Thirty-Four