This is part five of my continuing story. Please continue to send me your thoughts, feelings, and suggestions about the story to mnhunter@midsouth.rr.com, and I'll get back to you. I hope you will enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it..
My gratitude for the kind words and feedback of Matthew and Tonny, as well as the continuing support of people like Firesong and Yuli, who I can count on to let me know how I'm doing.
I would like to recommend that you read some of the other stories. I have found fantastic stories like "Adam-Zach-BSB" (forgive me if I fubared the title, you know what I mean) and "Hand of Fate" by Erron, just to name a few.
Without a doubt, however, no list of thanks would be complete without mentioning the insights of DLS. His "Brian and me" stories are some of my inspirations (and if a segment comes out late, blame him--his chapters come out faster, and I always have to stop and read what's going on in his story before I work on mine :)
If I've forgotten to mention anyone, what can I say? I'm dense.
That being said, here's my standard legal disclaimer.
WARNING: This story is sexually-explicit, involving homosexuality. Do not continue if this will offend you. If accessing this story causes you to break local laws (village, town, city, county, province, state, or country, etc.), please leave now.
By continuing, you implicitly declare and affirm under penalties of perjury that you are not a minor or in the company of a minor and are entitled to have access to sexually-explicit material.
The content and opinions expressed in this story do not imply anything with regards to the sexual preference of any member of NSYNC or any other celebrities named herein. It is a work of fiction entirely.
I stood there utterly speechless.
"Listen, Matt, if there's anything I . . . ."
"I think you've done enough," I barked, holding a hand up and looking away. I couldn't even face him right now. I knew I took a lot of chances, I had ever since . . . for a long time. I never imagined it would be carried this far. I don't even know what I thought anymore.
About that time, I spotted three guys rounding the corner headed towards us. I looked at my watch. It could not be visiting hours yet was all that ran through my mind.
"Matt, I know . . . ," Scott continued.
"No, Scott, I don't think you do. Now, please, I don't want to deal with this right now."
"Matt . . . ."
"No, Scott, not now. I'll survive--I always have," forcing myself to smile. "You know that. Just let me handle this in my own way."
He gave a halfhearted attempt at a smile and sighed, "Okay, Matt, but don't hesitate to call if you need me."
"Okay," I agreed as the three guys finally reached the room and Scott excused himself. "Hey, guys. JC is inside. He'll be happy to see you."
I went in ahead of them. "Hey, Josh, you've got to be careful." He threw me a puzzled look. I explained, "Look what I caught hanging around the hospital."
The guys took the cue and entered. JC's face brightened instantly.
"Hey, ugly, how ya doin'?" one of the guys asked JC.
"Well," I interrupted, "I'll leave you guys alone." I moved for the door.
"Like hell you will," JC declared as he grabbed my arm. Instinctively, I started to pull my arm away, but I thought better of it and returned it to within his reach. "I think formal introductions are in order," he explained, "Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick, this is Matt. Matt, these are the guys."
"Nice to put names to the faces," I greeted. They returned the sentiment.
"Matt's the one who saved me and Jus."
"Just doing my . . . ," I caught myself as JC cut me a harsh look that faded to a smile when he saw the smile on my own face. "I was in the right place at the right time. I'm glad I could help."
Lance chimed in, "Well, we're glad you were there, for both of them."
About that time, Heather entered with a scruffy-looking blond-haired kid. "Do I hear someone singing my praises?" he asked innocently.
"The only one singing your praises is you, Curly," Joey teased.
Justin gave his wheelchair a good push and his cast leg came just fractions of an inch away from Joey's crotch. "You were saying? I'd think carefully about my answer or I won't be the only one who can hit some of those high notes."
The whole burst into laughter.
The doctor entered the room with a questioning look. "Am I interrupting?"
I shook my head "no," and he continued. "Well, I have good news. Mr. Chasez," he began, pronouncing the name wrong.
"Chasez," I corrected with the proper French inflection. JC just looked at me out of the corner of his eye as the dimples appeared beside his mouth.
"Anyway," the doctor smirked, "all of your test results are back, and I think you are ready to go home."
"What about me?" Justin chirped.
"You're going to need to stay here for a while longer so we can monitor you for complications from your concussion."
Justin's shoulders slumped as he let out a soft moan.
"What about home health, doctor? Could, say, a nurse keep an eye on him?" JC asked.
I squinted my eyes and gazed at him intently. I could tell the gears in his head were turning.
"I guess so," he answered, "but it will need to be twenty-four hour care at first. If I do discharge you two, it's on the condition that you take it easy. I don't want either of you traveling for at least six weeks."
"Agreed," JC said.
"Okay, then, I'll have the social worker make the arrangements," he, too, agreed before leaving the room.
JC turned and looked at me. "Well?"
I was almost as shocked as everyone else in the room. "What? I couldn't."
"Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, he kind of has a job saving lunkheads like you two," Chris reminded him.
"I don't think there will be a schedule conflict," he said knowingly.
I looked at him questioningly.
"Didn't Scott tell you to take a vacation earlier?" he answered.
So he heard us, I thought to myself.
"Everyone, can you give Josh and I a minute, please?" I asked.
"Sure. We're all gonna go down and get some breakfast. Do you guys want anything?" Joey asked.
"I'm fine," JC told him.
"Nothing for me, either," I answered likewise.
JC and I waited for everyone to leave the room. I went to the foot of the bed and sat with one leg folded underneath me.
"So, do you want to tell me what all that was about?" I began.
"I heard you and Scott this morning."
"I assumed as much. Are the walls in this place really that thin?"
"No," he laughed, catching the movie reference I'd made, "your mouth is really that big."
I couldn't help but laugh, too. His smile was contagious. "So what does that have to do with me and this job offer?"
"Easy. You need a job, and we need a nurse. Besides, it's more than just a job offer. Consider it helping out a friend."
"So now I'm a charity case?" I asked. I might have resented the implication more coming from someone else, but I knew what he was trying to do.
"You know that's not what I'm saying. I can't help but feel responsible for all this."
"Hold it right there, Joshua Scott Chasez. I assure you that they would not have fired me for a one-shot deal. This had nothing to do with you."
"Maybe. Maybe not. In either case, we really do need a nurse."
"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" I asked, feigning exasperation.
"Not a chance," he grinned.
"On one condition."
"What's that?"
"I'll keep an eye on you and Justin, but it will be as a friend who happens to be a nurse. That means I don't get paid."
"I can't let you do that, Matt."
"Let me? What we have here is a failure to communicate," I said, continuing the movie allusions.
He smiled. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?" he asked, mocking me.
"Not a chance," I answered, echoing his earlier sentiments.
"But you're kind of out of a job. How are you going to pay the bills?"
"First of all, Josh, let me worry about that, but if it will make you feel better, I've got plenty of money in the bank."
"Oh, so you're loaded, huh?" he teased.
I laughed at the idiotic expression on his face (that he had put there on purpose). "I may not be some world-renown recording artist," I began, "but I do okay. I received some money in a lawsuit settlement some time ago, and a few good investments go a long way."
"Okay, okay," he smiled, mimicking the same exasperation I had displayed, throwing his hands in the air, "you win. We'll do it your way."
Everyone returned just in time to catch that last statement. Lance chuckled, "Careful, that sounds dangerously like a song from another Orlando-based group."
The rest of the guys joined in his laughter.
"So what do you say, Matt?" Chris asked.
"Please," Justin asked, batting his baby blues at me like some innocent schoolgirl.
I rolled my eyes. "And how could I say no to a face like this?" I asked, grabbing him by the chin.
Justin raised his arms in the air in victory like he'd just scored a knockout.
"Fantastic," Joey shouted, "can we please sign the papers and get back to the hotel before this food causes us all to need a doctor?"
"That may be a problem," an unseen female voice answered.
We all turned to see the source.
"Mom!" Justin shouted. The woman leaned over his shoulders and hugged him. "When did you get here?"
"My flight landed about forty-five minutes ago. I came straight from the airport."
"But how did you know?" Justin asked.
Lance looked at him and said, "Duh!"
Justin grinned sheepishly. "I guess that question was kind of dense. Mom, I want you to meet Matt Hunter. Matt, this is my mother, Lynn Harliss."
I extended my hand. "A pleasure, Mrs. Harliss."
She took my hand. "Please call me Lynn. I hear I owe you quite a debt of gratitude for two of my guys," she told me, reaching over to pat JC on the leg.
"Just doing my . . . ." I never got a chance to finish my statement as JC's elbow came up and caught me square in the gut. I shot him a dirty look. "Glad to help," I corrected.
JC smiled in smug satisfaction.
"By the way," Chris started, "you said that there might be a problem."
Lynn continued, "Yes. When I was in the cab on the way over, the radio station announced that your fans had found your hotel. They were even blocking the entrance to the hospital. The police had to let me through."
"Great," Lance said sarcastically. "Now what?"
"We'll just go back to Orlando," she replied.
"We can't," Justin explained. "I can't go anywhere for several days, at least not like that. The doctor said I have to be monitored for complications."
"I thought the doctor told me in the hall that you could go home."
"On the condition that a home health nurse stays with me twenty-four hours a day," Justin told her.
"Oh," she muttered, almost disappointed.
"But I just talked Matt into staying with us," JC added with glee.
"That's wonderful," Lynn started, "but that doesn't alleviate the problem that you'll never get any rest now that the fans know where you are staying and that you're not leaving right away."
Everyone sat in silence for a while.
I finally spoke, "You're welcome to stay with me."
Chris looked at me funny. "You have enough room for seven house guests?"
"Six," Heather corrected, "I have to get back to school."
"Six, then," Chris repeated.
"Yeah, Daddy Warbucks, do you?" JC smiled.
That shit-eating look on his face almost made me lose my composure, but I managed to stifle the laugh and continue, "Well, my place has four bedrooms, and my parents' house just outside the city has three."
"Where are your parents gonna sleep?" Lance laughed.
"My mother died of breast cancer when I was in college, and my father lives with his new wife and their kids in Connecticut."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lance said, feeling like he'd stuck his foot in his mouth.
"It's okay," I assured him, "JC, Justin, and Lynn can stay with me. The rest of you can stay at my folks'."
"Sounds like a plan," Joey cheered.
I finally got Chris, Joey, and Lance settled at my parents' before taking Heather to the airport before returning to the hospital to pick up the guys. She hugged me tightly and told me to take good care of her big brother.
Once I was home, the adrenaline high I had been running on since this whole thing began was crashing down around me. I got everyone settled in the living room, and we rented a movie on pay-per-view. That was the last thing I remember before falling asleep on the couch.
I awoke sometime around midnight. They had managed to get Justin to the spare room across from mine, and Lynn had taken the room down the hall. Looking around, I realized that an afghan had been tucked over me, and I was laying on the pillow from my bed. JC was sitting in the floor beside me with his face buried in the cushions of the couch. He must have been watching me as he fell asleep. His neck seemed to be contorted in some inhuman way that I knew would be a cause for regret in the morning. I dropped my feet to the floor and tried to rouse JC to no avail. "My knees are gonna hate me, but what the hell?" I thought to myself. I knelt down and placed one arm under his knees, while bracing his head and shoulders with other. I managed to lift him as his head fell limply against my chest. I carried him to the room next to mine and put him in bed.
Clutching at my back, I realized I must have pulled something, so I hopped in the shower to relax. The soft rhythm and gentle caress of the water did wonders for my tense muscles. I finally gave into exhaustion and exchanged my steaming shower for my cool bed sheets. I had almost returned to sleep when I heard a noise.
My fatigued mind finally recognized the sound of crying, coming from JC's room. I stumbled into the room wearing only my boxers (I'm used to living alone, as evidenced by my tripping over JC's shoes). JC was wearing the same white tee-shirt and dark boxers that he had on when I put him in bed, but I barely recognized him. His hair was wild, a sheen of cold sweat wrapped his body like a second skin, hugging his shirt tightly against his chest, and the sheets and blanket were in a complete disarray, clenched in his fists in a white-knuckle grip. Tracks of tears clung to his sleeping face. He softly moaned Craig's name and cried "no." Becoming louder and louder, he finally just let out a primal scream.
I moved towards him, shaking his shoulders, trying to wake him as I sat beside him on one knee. He was startled, his eyes wide with terror. He clutched my arm like some beaten animal cowling for protection. He finally calmed down some, and I sat helpless as his tears streaked my leg where his head rested. When he seemed more coherent, I leaned down to his eye level and asked him if he was alright. Shuddered breaths escaped his lips as he pulled me close and kissed me.
TO BE CONTINUED . . . . . .