"And Joey did what?" laughed Chris, staring at Lance incredulously. "You can have him thrown from the set for that, you know. How did the lighting stand fare?"

"Well," Lance smiled, shrugging. "Whatever it takes to distract him from missing his boy. As long as he's not humping me. That's all I ask." He scratched the back of his head, and peered into the booth where Joey was singing. "Y'all waited too long to come back up to Toronto. If Joey's like this, how's JC handling it?"

"JC," said Chris, infusing his words with a great deal of significance, "is getting along with Kelly. Finally. More or less. Which is good, because I don't feel right about any of you guys being alone anymore. You and Joey ... everything's been okay? Aside from random incidents of equipment humping?"

Lance sighed, and placed a dramatic hand to his forehead. "Besides being so damn exhausted all the time? Me and Joey are fine."

"You know what I mean. Right now we all need someone to watch our backs against you-know-who," said Chris, trying not to make too big a deal out of it. "Joey's been good, though? No, um, slip-ups or anything?" It felt like an awful thing to ask, but obviously it had happened before and it was exactly the kind of thing that Chaz would find out and use against them.

"Oh," Lance frowned slightly. "No. No ... slip-ups. He's been on the phone with JC practically the whole trip. Except when he's on the phone with Kelly. At any rate, even though nothing happened with ... what we were afraid was going to happen ... he's been good. Careful. Nothing to worry about."

"Good," said Chris, satisfied with that. "Though it might've been nice to have something new to worry about instead of just re-worrying about all the old stuff. How about you? Everything okay? Nothing unusual happening?"

"Chris," Lance said patiently. "Nothing's happening. Nothing's happened. First of all, you would be, like, the first person we'd tell. Second of all ... I don't even know how to explain the second of all. Just that ... we have to move on, you know? We caught some break, or something, when he didn't out Joey and JC ... and I doubt we'll ever know why. But you can't ... sit around, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Um. I've got some other good cliches I can use, too."

"The moment I stop worrying, something will happen," said Chris ominously. "He's not gonna give up like that, he's just waiting. You know he is, Lance. And none of us knows what he's gonna try next. He didn't out JC and Joey because it's doing more to us to be worrying about it than to have it actually happen. And it still could, at any time. He still knows, and we know he knows."

Lance shook his head. "That's my point. He's making your life miserable, Chris, and he's not even lifting a finger. You haven't heard from him since ... what, middle of January? That's, like, over two months. Believe me, no one is underestimating the damage he could cause -- I had another one of those nightmares, the other night -- but it's just uprooted your whole life."

"Right when I stop being watchful, that's when it's going to happen," said Chris again, believing every word of it. "I can't stop worrying, because someone has to be. And trust me, Bass, if my mother can't get me to stop worrying about this? You don't stand a chance."

"I don't want you to stop worrying," Lance clarified, his brow furrowed, infuriatingly practical. "Just ... you have to realize that whether you're being watchful or not, he's probably going to be able to do whatever he wants to do. How could you have stopped anything he's done so far? We just ... have to be prepared to deal with the aftermath."

"And what if it was something I could stop?" said Chris, staring through the window at Joey again. "If there was something I could do, and I didn't because I wasn't being careful enough? I could never forgive myself, Lance. And I'm already close enough to that, so do you really want to take that chance? Huh? And you think I'm impossible to deal with now ... "

"Okay, okay." Lance ran a hesitant hand down Chris's back. "Okay, Chris. You just ... you keep being careful, and you keep checking up on me and Joey and your mom and Kelly and everybody else. Just ... " He shook his head, didn't say anything further. Chris was sure he'd realized the futility of it; his paranoia wasn't going anywhere, and Lance was the last person that was going to make him feel guilty about it.

"So Kelly's as big as a house," Chris said finally, after an awkward silence, glancing at Joey again. "And you thought she looked pregnant before you left."

And Lance sighed; and by unspoken agreement, that was that. He had let Lance relieve him, if just temporarily, and for his part -- he didn't balk at Lance's subtle disapproval. It was a tenuous truce.

JC looked miserable, but there wasn't a hell of a lot Chris could do about it. Justin already had an arm around his shoulders and Lance was sitting nearby managing to look both distant and concerned and Chris was pretty much just sitting.

"Don't worry," he said finally, breaking the thick silence, "they're saving the best bits for you, JC. Diapers and squalling and burping ... trust me, they're all better than being in a room with a screaming Kelly."

Justin and Lance shuddered in unison, and it would have been funny, given other circumstances. If they were slouched in the waiting room of a hospital in Orlando instead of an impersonal -- if plush -- hotel suite in Cleveland.

"Oh, they wouldn't have let me in there anyway," JC sighed. "Me and Kelly have gotten closer, but not that close. It's just ... " The tears started to well in his eyes again. "Now, like, a million people are going to get to see my baby before me."

That was the moment when Chris always felt like he was getting in over his head -- as soon as someone started crying. He wasn't sure he even had a comforting instinct that had the possibility of kicking in.

"They're all red and wrinkly when they're born," he pointed out instead, making a face. "They're like screaming raisins. You'll get to see her after she's all cleaned up and quiet and sleeping, you lucky bastard. I've seen newborns, Jace, and they're not pretty. Not even when they're family."

"Dude, he's right," Justin murmured. "Remember when Steven was born, and I showed you those pictures? Awful. Seriously. Like, an alien."

But JC just sighed, and pushed Justin's arm away gently, and went to stand by the window. Nothing was going to help, save management changing their minds -- and Chris knew it, and Justin and Lance knew it, and JC definitely knew it.

"It's, like, one of the biggest days of my life," he whispered, watching his breath fog the glass. "And not only do I not get to be with the people I'm supposed to be with, I have to go onstage tomorrow and present a stupid award and pretend that's one of the biggest days of my life. It's ... it's bullshit."

"At least you're with us," said Chris, staying put where he was sitting on the floor. "There are worse places to be right now, JC. At least you're with people who love you." Chris knew that wouldn't help, though, any more than it had helped when he'd said it the first time, earlier that day.

JC had been so excited when Joey had called, had started throwing his stuff in suitcases almost before he'd called their assistant to get him a ticket on the first flight back home. Chris had seen him hyper a thousand times, but he'd never seen him quite like that.

But that was before it had all come crashing down, before JC'd gotten a call back telling him that no, there would be no plane ticket coming any time soon. No, he wouldn't be going home for the birth at all.

Chris had watched helplessly as JC had all but collapsed on the edge of the bed, numbly echoing enough of what whoever the management fuck that had called was saying to him that Chris could decipher what was going on. Certainly enough for his chest to ache as he realized that, once again, it was mostly his fault.

"But you knew this was coming," JC had said, blinking back tears then, too. "I had already told you that I ... well, we don't really get to decide when a baby's ready to be born, do we? I'm sure it didn't think to consult with Michael's people, and ... no, look, you know I wanted to be able to give this award, but the other guys can ... I don't care what it looks like with both of us gone!"

Chris had gone and put an arm around JC's shoulders but JC had shaken it off, still hissing into the phone until he'd finally disconnected the call mid-sentence and collapsed on the bed. There was nothing Chris could really have done except sit there while JC had ranted about it, about how the jerks were still too worried about him and Joey being seen as being together and how Michael probably wouldn't notice if it was three *NSYNCers instead of four and how it was his baby and it was probably the only time in his entire life that he was going to have one.

Chris felt just as impotent now, watching JC silently steam up the window, as he had then. Nothing had changed, and while Joey was in the delivery room with Kelly back in Orlando, JC was still here with them, barred from being at the birth of his child.

"I can cover myself in raspberry juice and scrunch my face up for you, if you think that'll help," Chris said finally, making what he hoped looked like a newborn baby face. "I'm small. We can simulate the experience, but without the screaming and the pain, if you don't mind."

"Chris," Lance sighed, shooting him a slightly-exasperated, very-warning look, and he stopped. He just didn't know how to help. He could start ranting about Chaz again, wanted to start ranting about how it was his fault for threatening to out JC and Joey in the first place ... but none of them wanted to hear that anymore.

So it was back to the heavy, anxious silence until JC's cell phone chirped and they all jumped. JC, at least, jumped in a direction, pouncing on it and answering with a breathless "Joey??"

Chris got to his feet while waiting to find out who it was, what they were saying. A huge grin hadn't left JC's face, which was a good sign, but he also hadn't said anything, which was some kind of sign but Chris wasn't sure what.

"Joey," JC finally laughed, and Chris realized his other groupmate must have been just babbling. "Joey. I love you. Go tell your parents and call me back. And ... and kiss them both for me. Kel and the baby, not your parents. Well, them too. I love you. I love you."

He dropped the phone, still laughing, his eyes bright and tears streaming down his cheeks. "It's a girl!" he cried, clapping his hands together.

Chris whirled around and grinned at him and threw himself into JC's lap, giving him a huge, wet kiss on the cheek. "We know that, dork," he said as JC laughed again and reached up to wipe the slobber off. "Congratulations. Now tell us the rest!"

Justin and Lance dove in too, grins almost as big as JC's, to give their own congratulations ... and it was just so good to see everyone smiling again. To see everyone happy. To be there when something incredibly good was happening.

"Oh, she's fat!" JC replied excitedly, then clapped a hand over his mouth in horror as the rest of them cracked up. "No, no, not fat!" he protested. "Um. What was the word -- healthy. She's healthy. Almost nine pounds." He squealed and clapped his hands again. "And, like, they're all okay, everyone's okay. Joey's okay."

"Which name did they decide on, Jace?" Justin asked.

JC didn't answer for a minute; long enough for Justin to glance back worriedly at Chris and Lance. When his shoulders started shaking, Lance reached closer to lift his chin.

"They're ... w-waiting," JC choked out. "For me. To help decide. They said they wouldn't, without me seeing her ... "

"Oh!" said Chris, and it turned out he did have a few soft parts left inside him after all. "Oh wow, JC, you have the best boyfriend and boyfriend's ex-girlfriend ever." He threw his arms around JC's neck and gave him another kiss on the cheek. "We'll be home soon, Jace," he said, more softly and close to his ear. "Promise. We just need to do this thing and then we can all go and management can't do a thing about it."

JC just kept crying, softly, until Lance untangled himself and stood up. "I'll call management back, tell them to move all our flights up to after the ceremony tomorrow," he murmured, squeezing the back of JC's neck and gesturing at Justin and Chris with his chin. "We'll just go ... sit outside, okay, JC? So when Joey calls back you can have some privacy."

"Yeah," Justin agreed. "And now you don't have to worry about it when we present, tomorrow, either. You won't be distracted." He frowned. "Or, um. As distracted."

That made JC chuckle, and he looked at them gratefully. "Thanks, guys. And thanks for waiting with me. If I couldn't be ... there, you know there's nobody else I'd want to be with."

"I'm not going anywhere," said Chris, clinging to JC stubbornly to see if he could make him smile again, but finally he let Justin's even-more-stubborn gaze pull him away. "All right, all right," he said, messing up JC's hair as he stood. "But when that boyfriend of yours calls you back you tell him he'd better call us, too. We're practically family. We should get to hear the happy news from him, too."

"I'll tell him," JC promised, with a watery smile that was so bittersweet it was more than Chris wanted to see.

Chris watched Joey grit his teeth as JC ran into the coffee table as he paced with Brianna at his shoulder, humming and patting her back with his eyes closed.

"He hasn't slept for four days," muttered Joey just loud enough for Chris to hear, rolling his eyes. "He always wants to stay up when it's my turn, or Kelly's. In case, he says. I think he's still just feeling guilty about not being here when she was born. Like the kid won't know him as well." JC knocked into the table again on his way back. "Jace?" he called out sweetly. "Babe? Chris is here. Why don't you let him hold Bri for a bit, and you can just go take a quick nap?"

JC didn't ignore him, exactly, but he also didn't come back to hand Brianna over, so Chris gave Joey a quick wink and took matters into his own hands.

"Hand over the baby, Chasez," he said as he approached him, carefully keeping his voice low in case Brianna really had finally gone back to sleep. "Hand her over and no one gets hurt. And then get your a-- " Both Joey and JC shot him a disapproving look; Chris just rolled his eyes. "And then get your butt to bed. She'll still be here when you wake up, I promise. She's going to be here for a very, very, very long time."

"I'm not tired," JC murmured, turning to put his body between Chris and the baby. "And I just got her back to sleep. What if she wakes up?" He pulled her carefully away from his shoulder, as if to check and make sure that even talking that softly hadn't woken her. "Look, Chris," he breathed. "Isn't she perfect? Look at those curls. Like Justin. Only ... brown."

"So ... like her mom?" Joey teased him, winking at Chris. "Or her dad?"

"How the hel--" Another disapproving look from the daddies. "heck did she get JC's hair? Them are some funky genetics you got going on here." Chris held out his hands again. "Okay, c'mon Jace, she's gonna wake up if you trip and fall on your face, too. Are you trying to say that you don't think I can watch your little girl? Are you? Huh? Huh?"

Joey finally stood up to help the cause, even if he approached JC as warily as he'd approach a stray animal. "Chris came over to see the baby, Jace," he said, still with that indulgently sweet tone. "Why don't you let him hold her. Plus, it's making me jealous, I never get any sugar from you anymore ... "

He lifted their child out of JC's arms with already-practiced ease, and handed her to Chris with only the most cursory glance to make sure he was holding her safely. Then he wrapped his arms around his lover and kissed his neck tenderly. "Go sleep, JC. For me."

Chris held the sleeping baby against his shoulder gingerly and shut up, at least for the moment. JC and Joey both needed to get some sleep, but at least Joey wasn't stumbling over furniture. It was already so tough, having a new baby around the house, and he felt another flood of guilt that he'd brought even more stress into their lives on top of that.

It almost seemed like JC had fallen asleep on Joey's shoulder, they stayed so still, except for Joey's lips moving with his soft entreaties. Then Joey kissed the top of JC's head, and gave him a soft pat on his ass, and pushed him away from him carefully. "I'll wake you up," he promised, when JC turned to look questioningly at him over his shoulder.

Chris watched Joey watch JC climb the staircase, and then watched him groan and collapse back onto the couch. "God," he drawled. "It's like living with three women instead of none. What happened to the bachelor life, Chris?"

"You may have forgotten," said Chris, carefully sitting down, making sure not to jostle Brianna, "but the bachelor life ain't all it's cracked up to be. And hey, it's all worth it for the rugrat, right?" He turned his head and stared at Brianna's tiny little face. "She is beautiful, you know. I can't blame JC for wanting to spend every moment with her. Well, okay, I can, but only because I'm uncle Chris and I can get away with stuff like that."

"Why do I think I'll be hearing that excuse a lot," Joey replied, but he was grinning, stretching his arms out and tilting his head back on the cushions. "But look, enjoying staring while you can. JC's so out of it, he didn't realize she was awake before because she needs to eat. I gotta give her a bottle in a minute."

"JC's so out of it he was off on his own planet," muttered Chris, shifting Brianna in his arms but not handing her back yet. "She's so small," he blurted out a moment later. "I'd lose something this small. She's not gonna try and breastfeed off me, is she? Cause that'd be awfully disappointing for her ... "

Joey snorted, then closed his own eyes. "He's happy," he whispered after a minute. "He's so happy, Chris. He was so sad when he couldn't be here but as soon as he was, it was like ... I've never seen him like this. And, like, things are only gonna get better. We've got almost another month at home before we start rehearsals, and then ... the new tour, which is gonna be so huge, and the album, and the guys' songs ... "

"I know, Joey," said Chris quietly, wondering when the cosmic balance was going to kick in. Because Joey was right -- everything was going right, going almost perfect. As perfect as it could be when the new daddies were only sleeping about one hour out of forty-eight, anyway. "I'm so fu--" He looked down at Brianna on his own, this time. "I'm so proud of you guys. All of you. Makes my heart blow up into a big, chunky red mess in my chest."

"Gross, Chris," Joey glanced at him, then slowly took Brianna back into his own arms. "You can just give her back now." He winked, though, and reached down with his other hand to grab a bottle out of the diaper bag at his feet. The motion woke Brianna, but before she could do more than blink her eyes open at her daddy, he'd put the bottle to her mouth and she began suckling it happily.

They both watched her for a minute, Joey poking his finger into her tiny fist although Chris was certain JC had done the research and told him she was too young to grab anything yet.

"See?" said Chris, pointing at her and waggling his finger. "She would've just latched onto a nipple if I'd given her half a chance. Babies, they're dangerous, I tell you." She looked so tiny and fragile, though. Way, way too innocent to be brought into a situation where someone already had it in for her, or at least for her daddies and uncles.

Joey grinned, and then just started humming to his daughter. "She's gonna be smart," he said, definitively, like it was something he'd been rolling over in his head. "Smart like Justin. And clever, like Lance. And ... crazy-creative and beautiful, like Jace. Isn't she?"

"She is," agreed Chris, watching Joey feed her. She was so little, anything was possible. She had her whole life ahead of her, and Chris flat out refused to believe that any child raised by them could ever turn out anything less than wonderful. "So what part of me is she gonna get, then?" he asked. "Or are you hoping the Kirkpatrick genes didn't get mixed up in there anywhere?"

Joey's eyes were so warm when he looked back up at Chris. "No, they did. I'm sure. Your down-to-earthedness, for one." He leaned over to brush a kiss on her forehead, and she batted at his ear. "And your loyalty."

"She's stealing my best parts," teased Chris, reaching out to touch her soft, fine hair. So tiny. So pure. "Tell her to give 'em back, or you're gonna have some kinda super-being there, Joe. Your baby girl's gonna take over the world someday!"

"Yup!" Joey grinned, pulling the bottle away and grabbing a blanket, then turning her over on his lap to burp her before his expression got serious. "Know what I want her to have, from me?"

"I figured she was going to get her incessant cheerfulness from you," said Chris, "but I could be wrong." He did lean in closer to wait for Joey's answer; obviously whatever it was meant a lot to him. "Go ahead, tell me what you think."

"Friends that she'd want her kids to be like," he said softly. "I thank God every day for bringing the four of you into my life, Chris. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Probably feel a lot safer, thought Chris, but he didn't say it aloud. "Me too," he said instead, and reached out to stroke Brianna's hair again.

It was loud; everything was so loud, and fast -- first JC's laugh from under the stage when his catapult didn't work, Joey's answering laugh as he tried to heave himself up out of his own trap door to go help him. Then the snap of the metal, a sickening crunch, Joey's cry of pain ... Justin helplessly moaning "oh, God," as Lance made it to Joey's side first ... the shouts of Wade and the crew and JC's increasingly hysterical shouts of "what happened? what fucking happened?!?" that echoed and echoed and echoed from where he was still stuck under the floor. Unable to see all the blood.

It wasn't happening, it couldn't be happening, not then. Not ever. Chris felt dizzy and nauseous and still stayed rooted in his spot. People rushed past, jostling him, just streaks of motion in his peripheral vision, and the shouting faded to a persistent buzz in his ears. He could still hear Joey making noise, though -- sharply and clearly -- so he wasn't dead. Wasn't going to be dead.

"Chris, come on!"

He didn't even recognize the voice, but it was enough to yank him back from wherever it was the shock had sent him and before he even knew he was doing it, he was sprinting for Joey's side, pushing people twice his size out of his way without so much as blinking.

A grip -- or maybe it had taken two -- must have lifted the door off Joey's leg and helped him to his back on the stage where he lay, gritting his teeth and grabbing his knee. Lance was kneeling beside him, breathing heavily through his nose as he kept pressure on Joey's calf, blood and ... blood ... still seeping through his fingers. Justin hovered uncertainly until someone got JC out, then barely caught their frantic friend around the waist as he threw himself at Joey's side.

"Joey, Joey ... " he cried, batting at Justin to let him go while Justin pleaded with him to calm down. "Oh, no, your leg ... "

"Has someone called an ambulance?" asked Chris, shouting the question out to all the people milling around them. Rage, fueled by fear, was rising up in him. Rage and panic. "Has someone called an ambulance? Answer me, dammit! Has someone called a fucking ambulance yet?"

Someone, that might have been Wade, too, said that one was on its way. But it couldn't come fast enough, not with Joey's face so ashen, and JC an inconsolable wreck, and Justin frozen by fear, and even Lance barely keeping them together. Maybe they'd been lucky, that nothing like this had ever happened before. Maybe that was why it was such a shock.

"That fucker," Chris blurted out, dropping to his knees and slamming his fist into the top of the stage. "That fucker. I'm going to kill him. Screw all this pussyfooting around and about worrying what he's gonna do next. I don't care if he's my brother. I'm going to kill him." He shook off the bodyguard trying to get his attention, trying to shut him up. "You hear that?" he called out, lifting his head high, the words so loud they echoed. "I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

"What?" JC cried, turning on him. "What? What are you ... "

"It was an accident, Jace," Lance interrupted, murmuring soothingly at JC and refusing to look back at Chris. "Just an accident."

Justin finally let JC slump to the ground next to Joey, to try to cradle Joey's head in his lap, and approached Chris. "It was an accident," he echoed, louder and a little more desperate as he grabbed Chris's arms and shook him. "Shut up. An accident."

"Right, an accident," snapped Chris, letting his voice drop in respect for Joey and JC. The din of the people around them wouldn't let him speak softly, though. "Do you really believe that, Justin? Do you really believe this wasn't him? Has anything like this ever happened before? We have the best stage guys in the business, Justin, stuff like this doesn't just happen. And I'm gonna fucking kill the bastard because look. Look at Joey! He did this."

"It was an accident," Justin repeated weakly. But when Chris looked in his eyes, he could see that Justin hadn't even been able to convince himself.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!"

Chris recognized the voice of authority and stumbled to his feet, tugging Justin along with him as the paramedics rushed past. They pulled a loudly protesting JC away -- gently, Chris hoped -- and went to work on Joey.

"Fuck," said Chris, watching them. "Just fuck, Justin. What are we going to do?"

"Just ... let's just see how bad it is," Justin replied, starting forward when they got Joey onto the stretcher, assuring JC that he could ride in the ambulance. "Come on. Let's go with him to the hospital, that way we can help JC, and ... Lance?"

Chris turned to see Lance backing away slowly, staring down in numb shock at the blood coating his hands and dripping down his wrists.

"Lance, are you coming?" Justin asked, looking confused.

"No." Lance's reply was soft, distant, as he kept backing away from them. "No, I - I need to just clean ... clean up. Let me just clean up. I'll follow in one of the cars."

Chris let him go with just a nod, feeling like his own hands were the ones stained with blood. "All right," he said to Justin, turning back to watch the stretcher being wheeled out of the building. He hoped his voice didn't sound as cold as it felt. "Let's go."

"You're sure?" asked Chris, refusing to release his white-knuckled grip on the phone even as the detective assured him again and again that yes, the evidence they had was solid and yes, they'd be able to pursue it.

"With the witness coming forward, there's no question," he said. To his credit, he was only just beginning to sound impatient with Chris's incessant questioning. "As long as you can vouch for your own whereabouts at that time, we have our case."

"I can," said Chris, for probably the fifth time. "There were at least a dozen people with me."

"Don't worry, Mr. Kirkpatrick, we've had many credible witnesses come forward to verify your alibi -- " Alibi, like there was any possibility at all that the person the roadie had spotted messing with the trap door had been him. " -- so we don't expect any trouble with that. We'll be in touch if we need anything further from you."

"So that's it, then?"

"That's it," he said, with grave finality. "As soon as we track down your brother, he's going to be locked away for a long time. You won't have any more trouble with him."

It was still so hard to believe, that after all that had happened he was finally able to do something about it. Something official. Something that would finally end it. He heard a "goodbye" from the other end of the line, and disconnected the call without even echoing it back to him. He hardly even knew what to do with himself now, how to go on with this day, and the next and every one after that, without constantly worrying what Chaz would do next.

"Chris!"

"I'm on the phone!" he called back at the closed door.

"They need you back on the set!"

"I'll just be a minute!"

He stared at the phone cradled in his hands for a few moments longer, then quickly lifted it and punched in a few numbers.

"Hello?" The voice sounded harried, and Chris could hear the beep of a microwave and the sound of other voices in the background.

He hesitated, then cleared his throat. "Mom?" he said. "Sorry, did I catch you during lunch?"

"Oh, Chris!" Her voice immediately brightened and the background noises faded. "Sorry, I've been getting badgered by salesmen all morning. How's Joey? Is he doing all right?"

"He's good," said Chris instantly. "Well, not good, but better. He's even on the set today, doing his thing." He was there, sure, but he was limping badly and was obviously in so, so much pain every time he even tried to walk, let alone dance.

"Oh, well that's great news," she said. "I've been so worried. Everyone was still in a panic last time I talked to you."

"I'm sorry," murmured Chris. "It's been such a mess here, with the hospital and then having to start the video even without Joey and then the police -- "

"Did they find anything?" she interrupted him immediately.

Chris was sure she'd known as soon as she'd heard his voice what the main purpose of the call was. "Yeah," he said after a short hesitation. "Yeah, they did. It was him, mom. They have proof. They're going after him."

He hadn't been sure how she would react to the news, but the relieved sigh she let out upon hearing that said it all. "Oh, baby, that's wonderful. He won't try to get away with any of that ever again."

"Right," said Chris, the reality of that still not quite hitting him. "Right. The guys will all be safe now."

"And you," she reminded him softly. "You can go on with your life now, Chris, and don't tell me you have been. You and me both know just exactly how you've been since this whole thing started."

"I've had every reason to be the way I have -- " He started, but he hadn't called to argue that. He had that conversation enough with his bandmates, he didn't need to be having it with his mother too, not right now. "Mom, can you do me a favor?"

"Now what kind of question is that?" he said, her voice still laced with satisfaction. "Of course I can."

"Can you call Dani and tell her that ... that things are taken care of?"

There was a short pause on the other end of the line, utter silence, this his mother sighed and said, "Oh, Christopher, are you two not -- "

"We're not," he interrupted her before she could even continue the thought. "Things just aren't ... you talk to her, Mom, you know how things are between us right now. Just tell her that everything's gonna be okay now."

"Christopher," she said again, sounding so damn sorry for him. "I'm sure the two of you will find a way to work things out ... "

"Yeah," he said faintly. "I'm sure we'll be friends again ... someday." He didn't need to stress the word 'friends', he knew she'd caught it loud and clear. "Listen, Mom, I've gotta go. I just wanted to call and give you the good news."

"And it is good news," she echoed him. "Joey's doing all right and we're finally putting a stop to things. That's very good news. Don't worry, baby ... I'll make sure Danielle knows."

"Thanks," he said, standing up and already starting for the door. "I've really gotta go. I'll call you later."

When he finally left the room to head back for the set, he left the cell phone behind.

"That man," said Chris, wishing he was closing his own car door behind him so he could slam it for dramatic emphasis, "No, no, that boy, that little boy, can't stop showing off that damn scar. Did you see him out there? I was half thinking he was gonna go and stick his finger in it or something and laugh gleefully for the audience, like he isn't in pain every time we try and dance these days. Or every time he does something else strenuous like, oh, I dunno, walk."

Justin sighed, but he was smiling. "It's better than some of the things she could have asked, Chris," he pointed out. "Like whether we think the album's gonna beat the sales record. Or whether the baby rumors are true." He closed his eyes and stretched his long limbs out over the back seat. "And at least he can show it off now without Jace getting, like, a hard-on from how brave and strong and manly his boyfriend is."

"You think he didn't?" asked Chris, arching his eyebrows at him. "We're just lucky he's only getting a hard-on and not creaming himself right there on Rosie's chair. The both of them seem to conveniently forget what a nightmare that day was. I want to live in their little happy world, Justin. Can I please? I promise not to break the baby or anything."

Justin laughed merrily. "Well ... it's good they've moved on. I think Joey's almost convinced Jace to try the trap doors for the encore again, already. Convinced him that it won't happen again, you know? That nobody screwed up. Maybe a couple more weeks into the tour."

"The only people that screwed up were the ones that let my fucker of a brother anywhere near it," muttered Chris, digging his fingernails into the palm of his hand. "And I can't even blame them because that's pretty much my fault too, for looking just like him. Maybe I should've been the one in some horrible disfiguring accident. That would've solved everything."

"It wasn't disfiguring," Justin argued, missing -- or ignoring -- the point. "And ... it wasn't your fault. Why are you still beating yourself up about it? I don't get it. Joey, and Jace, and Lance ... they don't get it either."

"Why shouldn't I?" asked Chris, turning his head to stare out the window at the darkly tinted world outside. "I'm responsible for this, just like I'd be responsible if anything else ever happened. And I know that you guys are all falling over each other to tell me that it won't, but I've heard that before."

"It won't," said Justin, looking so earnest. "We have proof now. He's not dumb, you said that yourself. He knows we'd press charges if he came back. And it's not as if he has an unrecognizable face -- he can't just pop up anywhere. He won't. It's been a month, and ... he just won't."

"I know you're convinced he won't, and Joey and JC sure as hell choose to believe he won't, and Lance .. Lance is absolutely firm on the subject. But still ... " Chaz wasn't stupid, though, any more than Chris was. He knew he was easily recognizable, something that had once been an advantage for him but definitely wasn't any more. And in the last month they hadn't gotten so much as a whisper of his presence in their lives. He'd just disappeared.

"Even security thinks he's long gone, Chris," Justin added. "You know they've added people to the team, and no one's seen a hint of him. And I mean ... don't you think that if he planned on doing anything else, he'd have left you another note? Like he did after Dani, and JC and Joey? He wouldn't be able to resist showing off."

Chris chewed on his lip and continued to stare out the window. "I know," he said finally. "I know, I know, I know. The guy's vanished back into wherever he popped out from in the first place. It just feels ... unfinished."

It was finished, though, in the ways that mattered the rest of the guys. Chaz wasn't going to do anything else to hurt them, he'd gotten his petty revenge on Chris, changed his life -- changed him -- forever. Everything for the other guys, though, was back to normal -- all he needed was to have Justin resting his head on his shoulder peacefully and murmuring "it's over" to know that. The only place where so many things remained unresolved was inside him, and he suspected that maybe they always would.

I should've asked for more.