Just My Luck Ch. 5
JC felt incredibly strong arms encircle him and he yelped in surprise, but the sound was almost immediately extinguished when a massive hand descended forcibly over his mouth, effectively muffling his continued cries of alarm while his attacker’s other arm was wrapped tightly over his chest, holding his arms helplessly at his sides. It took JC a split second to realize the danger he was in and, once comprehension had sunk in, he screamed into the hand as he struggled against the powerful arms holding him in their viselike grips.
Hearing JC’s strangled cry, Chris quickly turned to see what happening and was horrified to see his friend writhing powerlessly in the arms of a much larger, dark form standing in the shadows.
“Let him go!” Chris shouted angrily at the dark figure. Without thinking twice he charged in a blind rage at the figure only to be kicked in the chest when he was within a few feet of the pair.
In alarm, JC watched as his attacker’s foot made contact with Chris hard enough to cause him to back pedal until his back and head bounced off the wall of the house with a deep, resounding thud. With a small groan, Chris’s eyes closed and he slid down the side of the house until his still body soundlessly met the porch.
While Chris lay in crumpled heap, JC frantically lashed out with his feet, kicking wildly and felt when his left foot made contact with his attacker’s shin. The man grunted but tightened his grip over JC’s chest and mouth, nearly cutting of his air supply, but he wasn’t about to give up. Somehow, he had to get free then get himself and Chris to safety.
JC continued to struggle violently against the hands gripping him, but the fight was quickly taken out of him when his head took a sudden, glancing blow against one of the posts supporting the front porch.
Seeing stars dance across his vision, JC sagged in his attacker’s arms, his groans of pain muffled behind the hand over his mouth. His vision gradually turned to gray as he tried to focus on Chris, who had remained in the same position that he had landed in less than a minute ago.
JC was only dimly aware of his assailant half dragging, half carrying him over the threshold of the now opened front door while in the mean time, another person stepped through the door, lifted Chris’s limp form off the porch and dragged him into the darkened house before closing the door behind them.
Dr. Shannon slowly opened Lance and Joey’s hospital room door then stepped inside, allowing it to gently close behind him. He acknowledged Jim and Diane Bass’s presence with a small wave before glancing to the far end of the room to see that Justin was still asleep on one of the low cots reserved for the rest of the group and any family members who might show, much to his relief, with manager, Johnny Wright sitting nearby. About an hour earlier, he and Johnny Wright, along with Chris and JC had been able to persuade the young man into taking an injection of a strong sedative when he became so emotionally distraught that the doctor was worried that Justin was going to make himself sick as a result. Johnny and the doctor had been amazed that Justin had held up as long as he had without breaking down since the young man had seen and dealt with so much earlier in the day following Lance’s attack.
At the scene of the crime, he had been able to keep a level head and had made several phone calls alerting the authorities and management…this being just after he, JC and Joey had found Lance. He had also remained relatively calm when he and the rest of the group heard about Joey and Lance’s condition in the doctor’s office at the hospital. It was only when the group was ready to enter the room that Lance and Joey were sharing that Justin completely lost it and broke down in tears, his body wracked with sobs.
As Dr. Shannon walked toward Lance’s bed to speak with the young man’s parents, Johnny sat back and replayed the events that led up to the necessity of the sedative for the curly haired young man lying on the cot before him.
“Like I said in my office, they’re both resting well and may not even realize that we are even in the room,” Dr. Shannon stated quietly at the VIP floor’s visitor’s area where Johnny, JC, Chris, and Justin were signing in and taking special tags that they would need to wear while on the floor.
“Lance is pretty bruised up, especially around his neck.”
“You didn’t cover the bruises?” JC asked as he pinned his tag to his shirt.
“No…we didn’t have to since there were no abrasions around his neck like there were around his wrists and ankles.”
With those words said, Justin began to feel a nervous flutter in his stomach. He had endured seeing Lance in the trailer, but he hadn’t paid that close of attention to his wounds since he had been kept busy making phone calls. Now…now he would have to look at the marks and he suddenly didn’t know if he could.
“Hey…J…here’s the pen to sign in,” Chris said, pushing the pen into Justin’s hand.
“Wha? Hmm?” Justin mumbled in confusion when he realized that all eyes were on him.
“What?” he asked again, his voice tinged with embarrassment and irritation.
“You need to sign in, J…are you okay?” Chris asked in concern as he took in the look of slight alarm that Justin was wearing.
“Um…yeah…why?” Justin stated, turning his back to the group while writing his name on the clipboard. He handed the pen to JC then took a tag from the basket and pinned it to his shirt.
When finished he looked up to see that everyone was still looking at him.
“What?” he asked in frustration. “Do I have something on my face?” His question and tone of voice surprised Chris and he simply shook his head in reply.
“No,” Johnny replied gently, trying to defuse the situation. “He just wants to make sure you’re up to this, that’s all.”
“Yeah…I’m fine,” Justin replied, almost too quickly then walked away from the group and took a few deep, calming breaths in an effort to settle his nervousness all the while feeling several sets of eyes staring at him.
“Which way, Dr. Shannon?” Justin asked, trying to focus the unwanted attention somewhere else while at the same time hoping to gain some control over the horde of butterflies that were fluttering wildly in his stomach.
The doctor gave Justin a quizzical look then smiled as he gestured at the hallway to the left of where they were standing.
“Follow me.”
The group slowly followed the doctor and listened as he gave further information on Lance and Joey’s conditions and what they should expect to see. No one noticed that the closer they came to reaching Joey and Lance’s room, the slower Justin became…they were paying too close of attention to what Dr. Shannon was saying.
It was JC who finally noticed that Justin was not walking with the rest of the group and he stopped and turned to see what the hold up was.
“J…what’s going on?” he quietly asked. It was then that he noticed tears beginning to stream down his younger friend’s face.
“J…why are you crying?” JC asked as he trotted over to Justin’s side and wrapped an arm around his shoulders and was surprised to feel that Justin was slightly shaking.
“I can’t…I can’t go in there,” he whispered, shaking his head while fearfully looking down the hall where the rest of the group was standing, staring at him in concern and confusion.
“Sh…it’s okay…they’re both okay,” JC said as he gave Justin a small tug in the general direction of Joey and Lance’s room.
“No…NO!” Justin shouted at the older man. “It’s not okay, Jace! It’s not okay!”
His shouts immediately caused the rest of the group to hurry to their side.
“Hey…there’s no need to yell,” Dr. Shannon said as he stood on the other side of the distraught young man then placed his hand on Justin’s shoulder. It was then that he noticed that Justin was shaking like a leaf fluttering in the wind.
“It’s not okay…they’re not okay…don’t you see that?” Justin cried out through his tears. “Lance was attacked! Why did it happen?”
Justin did not give anyone the chance to answer his question by crying out again.
“Do you know what I was doing when it happened?” he asked, looking at everyone through his tears. He roughly wiped at his face with his hands then cried out again.
“Do you? Do you?” He then felt his knees give way and he slid down to the cold tile floor.
“No…what were you doing, J?” Chris asked gently as he sank to the floor with Justin and held the weeping man in his arms.
“I was playing basketball…basketball…I should have been there, but I was playing a stupid game while Lance was being attacked! Lance is going to hate me…I should have been there…I should have gone to the trailer just as soon as I found out he was in there resting, but I didn’t because I wanted to play a dumb pick up game.”
With his disclosure, Justin’s tears increased as did the intensity of his loud sobs that were harshly wracking his body. It became apparent to Dr. Shannon that Justin was too far gone to stop the tears himself and no amount of gentle words or touches would be the answer to the situation.
While Justin continued to be inconsolable, Chris and JC, who had also sank to the floor on the other side of Justin, looked up questioningly at Dr. Shannon and Johnny through their own tears.
“We’ll be right back,” Dr. Shannon quietly stated, knowing what was going to be needed to calm the young man down as he and Johnny walked over to a nearby nurses station.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” one of the nurses at the station asked as she and three other nurses stood quietly watching the scene before them.
“No, Deborah and I’d appreciate it if nothing that you saw leaves this floor…or leaves this station,” the doctor replied in a tone of voice that meant business.
“Yes, sir,” the nurses all replied then returned to their work without another word. The nurses that worked this particular floor had often dealt with celebrities and dignitaries through the years and understood the need for privacy. Besides that, it was the law. The hospital had always prided itself on the honor code that was adhered to by its staff and these nurses were not about to be the first to break that code…not by a long shot.
“What are you going to do?” Johnny asked as he followed the doctor, who was now walking briskly down a short hallway.
“I’m going to have to give him a shot to help calm him down,” Dr. Shannon stated over his shoulder to Johnny as he entered a small room then opened a glassed in medicine cabinet. He quickly searched through several vials until he found what he needed then began opening and closing drawers in search of more items.
“Whatever you feel is necessary, Dr. Shannon,” Johnny said bewilderedly as he watched the doctor prepare a syringe with the clear liquid from the vial then grab up an alcohol swipe and tourniquet from the cabinet top.
Johnny was thoroughly confused as well as upset for in all his years with the members of Nsync, he had never seen such an emotional outpouring as he had just witnessed minutes ago. He was relieved that the doctor was there and had a plan that would hopefully help the youngest member of the group cope with his overwrought emotions.
As Johnny stood at the doorway, Dr. Shannon quickly wrote the items down that he had pulled from the cabinet and drawers on a nearby clipboard then the pair left the room and hurriedly returned to the three young men sitting on the floor.
“Justin…I want to give you something that will help calm you down,” Dr. Shannon said very quietly as he knelt down beside Justin then pulled out the rubber tourniquet from his pocket and the alcohol swipe.
“No…no…please,” Justin whispered, his voice barely audible through his heavy tears. “I don’t want a shot…please…no, Dr. Shannon…don’t make me get a shot.”
“Yes, son,” Dr. Shannon responded gently, but firmly as Justin continued to shake his head and whisper the word, no.
“Justin…listen to me, son…you need to calm down. Remember a year ago…in the stairwell?” the doctor asked as he watched Chris slowly help JC remove Justin’s light jacket without protest. He was simply too weak to fight them and when they had finished, he found himself leaning heavily against JC due to his weariness.
“Do you remember becoming upset in JC’s hospital room after his collapse in my office?” the doctor quietly asked and was relieved to see Justin slowly nod his head in response.
“Do you also remember me giving you that shot to calm you down and how much better you felt the next day when it was finally time to take JC, Joey and Lance home? You were able to help take care of them.”
Once again, Justin simply nodded his head as his tears continued to fall heavily down his face.
“Well…this shot is going to help you rest so that tomorrow, when Joey and Lance will really start needing your help, you’ll be there for them.”
Justin seemed to think the doctor’s words through then nodded his head wearily in agreement as his tears continued to flow freely down his face.
After Justin’s nod of agreement, Dr. Shannon wasted no time in carrying out the injection and in a little less than a minute, Justin was lying quietly on the floor, his head in JC’s lap. Dr. Shannon quickly put the empty syringe and tourniquet into his pocket then pulled his stethoscope off the back of his neck. He listened to Justin’s heart and lung sounds then checked his pulse before sitting back on his heels and rubbing his hands tiredly over his face.
“He’s doing fine,” he mumbled through his hands then dropped them to his sides. “Everything is within normal ranges…his blood pressure is a little high, but that’s understandable and it’ll drop in a few minutes. I’ll check it again once we get him settled.”
A unified sigh of relief was heard and the doctor looked at the faces of those surrounding him. Johnny Wright’s face spoke of the grief only a father figure could possibly have, which is the way that he had been described as by the boys on more than one occasion.
Next, his gaze traveled to JC who had leaned his back against the wall, his face turned upward, tears still silently falling as he continued to run his hand over Justin’s head.
“You did the right thing, Doc,” Chris said, breaking the uncomfortable silence as he knelt beside JC and gently wiped Justin’s tear stained face with Johnny’s handkerchief then handed it to JC, who also wiped his own tears away before handing it back to Chris, who once again filled the silence.
“I knew that Baby J would somehow blame himself for this…I just knew he would. Don’t worry, doc…you did the right thing...really.”
Chris patted the doctor’s knee then pushed himself off the floor and tucked the handkerchief into his pocket.
“Where are you going to put him?” Johnny asked as he watched Justin’s sleeping form.
“I’ll get a gurney over here and we’ll put him on it and take him to Lance and Joey’s room. There are cots and two pull out couches already in there for everyone,” Dr. Shannon answered as he stood up.
“What will we tell Lance and Joey if they see us bringing Justin in?” JC asked from the floor. He didn’t want either of his friends to become upset by seeing Justin unconscious and being wheeled into the room.
“They’re both still pretty much out of it, according to the floor nurse that called me,” Dr. Shannon answered. “It’ll be okay. By the time they’re actually alert and awake I will have figured out something to say to them.” With that said, Dr. Shannon quickly left the group and went around the corner to find a gurney.
Minutes later, the group very carefully lifted Justin’s limp, sleeping form from the floor and placed him gently on the gurney before heading down the hallway.
“He seems to be sleeping well,” Diane Bass said to Johnny, interrupting his thoughts as she knelt down beside Justin and ran her cool hand over his forehead then his unruly curls.
“Yes…Dr. Shannon had to give him something to calm him down,” Johnny quietly replied as he tore his gaze from Justin’s still form and met Diane’s tired eyes.
“I know, Johnny. The doctor told us what happened,” Diane replied in a sad voice. “Listen…you look worn out. Why don’t you go on home and get some rest. I know that you’re supposed to fly out to LA tomorrow afternoon.”
“That’s something that I can cancel,” Johnny quickly replied. “I feel like I need to be here since Lynn is out of town.”
“No…don’t Johnny. Lance was the one who just reminded us of your flight plans and the meetings,” Diane said with a smile. “You should really go out there and get your business done and then you can come back and keep an eye on the boys. Besides that, Jim and I will be here when Justin wakes up and so will Chris and JC. We’ll take care of him until Jan arrives.”
“Lance reminded you of my meetings?” Johnny asked with a weary smile. “Scoop keeps up with everyone, doesn’t he?”
“Yes…he does,” Diane replied with a small laugh. When Joey’s older brother, Steve gave Lance his nickname several years ago, he had picked one that fit her son to a tee. Lance had the uncanny ability to keep up with not only the group’s crazy schedule but also the schedules of those whom he worked closely with, including Johnny.
“Now…why don’t you say good bye to him and Joey then go home…and give your kids a hug and kiss, Johnny…they’re so precious…”
Diane couldn’t finish her statement and when Johnny held out his arms to her, she willing fell into his warm embrace.
“He’s okay, Diane…he’s fine…he’s safe,” Johnny whispered into the distraught woman’s ear. He could never stand to see anyone cry, especially someone as special as Diane Bass.
He was absolutely heartbroken for both of Lance’s parents and Joey’s as well. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that it would be necessary to call any one of the member’s of Nsync’s parents to let them know that their son had been violently attacked, but today he had had to make that phone call as well as calling Joey’s parents to let them know that their son had severely injured himself while saving the life of one of his friends. Johnny was brought out of his thoughts by Diane’s quiet words and her movements.
“I know…I know,” she softly replied as she sat back out of Johnny’s arms and hastily wiped away her tears with the tissue that Johnny offered her.
“I shouldn’t be crying, Johnny,” Diane apologized. “Lance was found in time...thank goodness for Joey. He’s alert and aware of where he is and who we are…and what happened to him,” she added almost inaudibly, then shook her head and continued with the positive side of Lance’s condition.
“The doctor also says that the damage to his throat is not permanent and he’ll have all the help he needs in healing and getting better. I just can’t believe that something like this happened to my baby. It always happens to someone else, you know?”
Johnny nodded his head in reply, no more words were said as he leaned over and gave Diane a kiss on the cheek before standing up to make his way over to Lance’s bedside.
From across the room he could see that Lance was once again awake and Jim was leaning over the bedrails quietly speaking to him. Lance had been drifting in and out of sleep since he had been placed into the large suite several hours ago. Dr. Shannon said that that was to be expected for the next 24 to 48 hours due to the fact that he had not only endured a severely traumatic situation physically and emotionally and that his body would be trying to heal itself by periodically shutting itself down, but also the very nature of his injuries and the medications that he was receiving would cause him to drift in and out.
Johnny slowly walked across the room then stood at the foot of Lance’s bed. He spoke with Jim for a few moments then glanced at the note that Lance was holding up in his direction, his face etched with concern.
“How is Darren? I don’t want him to blame himself for this.”
Johnny cleared his throat before speaking. He would need to choose his words very carefully in order not to upset Lance.
“Darren is taking it pretty hard, Lance,” Johnny stated quietly. “Wade went over to Darren and Sherrie’s house this afternoon and I think he’s going to be staying with them for a day or two to help out.” Johnny was referring to Wade Robson, another one of the many choreographers that worked with the group.
With unshed tears, Lance furiously scrawled out another message. “It wasn’t his fault.”
“I know that, you know that, the police know that, but it’s going to take time before Darren knows that,” Johnny said with a tired sigh. It had been Darren that had suggested to Lonnie that Lance rest in his trailer instead of having him lay down on a couch just outside the dressing room area. He felt that if he had just allowed Lance to stay in the hallway, the attack would not have taken place and Lance and Joey would not have ended up in the hospital. Johnny had not even told any one of the group members that Darren had been so upset when the ambulance carrying Joey and Lance pulled away from the WEG compound that he threw up several times, causing Johnny to consider taking the young man to the hospital, but Darren had been able to convince the manager to just take him home…his wife, Sherrie would be able to take care of him better than any doctor could and it was those words that convinced him to allow Wade to take the young man home.
Lance noticed the far away look on Johnny’s face and decided to change the subject for the time being. He would ask more about Darren later on...maybe even have an opportunity to visit with him in a day or two in order to alleviate Darren’s feelings of guilt.
So…Lance quickly wrote another question completely off the subject of Darren and showed it to Johnny.
“Where are JC and Chris?”
“They went to your house and Joey’s to get some things to make your stay a little more comfortable,” Johnny answered while Lance scrawled out another question.
“How long ago? Shouldn’t they be back by now?”
Johnny blinked and nodded his head slowly. It hadn’t occurred to him that the two young men had been gone for very long. He had been too concerned about Lance, Joey and Justin to think about, much less worry about the length of time that JC and Chris had been away from the hospital.
“They have been gone about…two hours,” he answered looking at his watch before speaking again in much quieter voice.
“Long enough to get some stuff and come back.”
“Son, they may have stopped to eat somewhere and time got away from them,” Jim said, trying to lessen the tension he was beginning to feel.
“They were going to bring their food back here and bring me a shake,” Lance’s next note said.
Johnny bit his bottom lip as he saw at the look of concern on Lance’s face and he could feel the same look beginning to creep across his own features.
“Tell you what, Lance…I’ll just give Mike and Lonnie a call and we’ll have them track those two down,” Johnny said, patting Lance on the shoulder before reaching for the phone at Lance’s bedside.
“You know how Chris is…things always seem to distract him so easily,” Johnny added with an impish grin.
”Short attention span,” Lance quickly wrote down with a small smile, but worry could still be seen behind it.
Johnny chuckled at the note then made a few phone calls. Minutes later he hung up the phone.
“Mike and Lonnie are going to ride together over to Joey’s place first then they’ll head over to yours,” he said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile, but deep down inside he had a feeling that something was going on…something that was not good…not good at all.