After Joey left I sat on the couch and tried to decide if this was a good idea or not. I must have sat there for a good hour before I finally was brought out of my stupor by the doorbell.

"Who the hell..."

I get up off the couch, go to the door, "Shit, I forgot about him." I open the door, "Hey. Thanks for com..." I trail off as JC steps into view.

"You don't mind that I brought Jayce with me do you?"

"Um...No. Not at all." I stammer. I watch JC look my apartment over.

"So... You gonna invite us in or do we have to stand here in the hallway?" Justin asked.

"Um...Yeah. You wanna come in? Can I get you something to drink?" I stammer.

Justin watches me for a minute with a strange smile on his face, "I'll take a soda, Jayce? What about you?"

"Huh? Oh... Um...I'll have water thanks." JC states as he continues to stare at the barren walls of my apartment. "Don't you have any pictures or anything?"

"I had pictures up of my last..." Damn, do I let them know I'm gay or should I keep it to myself.

"Of your last what?" JC questioned, a slight grin on his face.

(God, he's gorgeous. Ok, I guess I'll be honest. Don't want them to catch me in a lie and Joey already knows.) "Um... of my last boyfriend."

"Oh. So..."

"So...How is the new routine coming? You got any questions or anything for us? We kinda left you hanging back at the studio." Justin cut in.

"Yeah, we didn't really give you much to work with except the music." JC stated.

"Um... actually.... Yeah, I did have a few questions."

"Ok, shoot." Justin says and takes a seat on the couch.

JC sits next to him and sees the video boxes on the table, "Oh, God. Please don't tell me you've been watching this?" He holds up the box for 'N the Mix.

I press play on the VCR and they both groan when the video starts with JC sitting in front of the piano explain about how they picked up Lance.

"God, make it stop." Justin says, leaning into JC and covering his eyes.

He looks at me, "You can turn that off now. You aren't gonna learn a thing about us from that thing. Except that Lance and Joey both like to 'Ski Doo'. The majority of that thing was for show. We were still with Lou when that was released."

"Well, it was the only video the store had of you guys dancing. I couldn't find anything else and I needed to know how well each of you danced before I started work."

"Why do you need that information," JC asked.

"I didn't want to choreograph something and find out that it was too difficult for 'all' of you?"

JC nods his head, "So what makes you think 'we' wouldn't be able to handle it?"

"I have no doubt that 'some' of you could handle anything I threw at you. But from watching the small amount of dancing on that tape I can seee that there is 'someone' that wouldn't be able to."

"Ok, so...You got any ideas yet? Or just been watching us?" Justin asks. He's watching JC closely, "If not we should probably go so you can get some work done."

"Actually, I have some ideas in my head. Can a couple of you guys meet me in the studio in the morning? I'd like to run it through my mind a bit and come up with something solid and I can do that better when I have someone to watch doing the moves."

"What time?" JC asks. "If it's not too early, I could probably meet you."

"Great. I'll have some moves to go over and you can let me know what you think. I'm sorry I didn't have anything yet."

"It's ok. You got any questions for us?" Justin asks.

"Um... Yeah...Is Lance the only one that has trouble learning the moves?"

"No, he's the slowest but Joey has trouble too. Chris has no attention span so you gotta get him interested and keep him interested." Justin rattles off.

"Ok, anything else I should know?"

"Well...I can't think of anything else." Justin states. "You? Jayce?"

"Nope. I can't think of anything either."

"So...I guess we'll be going then."

"Well, you never answered my question. What time would you like me to meet you at the studio?" JC asked.

"Um...How about 7am and I'll bring the coffee?"

"Sounds good. I take it black, no sugar, no cream and don't you dare bring me any of that decafe crap."

"You got it." I smile as the doorbell rings again. "Who the hell..." I go and open the door, "What are you doing here?"

"I came back to put you in your place. You need to be shown that you can't back talk me boy."

Justin comes into the hallway, "Joey? What are you doing here?"

JC, who was directly behind Justin, "Joey? Have you been drinking?"

"What are you two doing here? Little Wade here showing you both a good time?" Joey slurred.

I turned bright red and started to walk away. Joey grabbed my arm, "Where you think you're going, baby?"

I heard JC gasp and then saw a blur rush past me, "Joey! Let him go."

Justin grabbed my other arm and stepped between me and Joey, "Let him go Joseph. What are you doing?"

"He's a slut Just. I gotta put him back in his place, or he'll think he can mouth off to us no matter what?"

"Take your hands off of him Joey. He hasn't done anything. Why are you saying these things about him?" Justin questioned.

"Justin, take Joey home. I think I'm gonna stay and make sure Wade is ok." JC stated.

I was curled up at their feet. I had collasped the minute my arm had been released.

JC knelt down in front of me after Justin drug Joey out of the apartment, "So...you ok?" He reached a tentative hand out to me but I pulled away. "It's ok, he's gone. He's not gonna be coming back."

I just sat there. I couldn't move. JC sat there with me, he moved so that he was sitting on the floor next to me but didn't touch me. "I'm sorry." I finally stated.

"For what? You didn't do anything."

I just sat there. That wasn't what he was supposed to say. He was supposed to jump up and slap me or something, anything other than be nice. I didn't know what to do, so I did the only thing I could think of. I cried.

JC just sat there on the floor with me. I have no idea what he was thinking but he didn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon and that was strangely comforting. I curled into a ball on the floor.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember was waking up in my own bed with a blanket tossed over me for warmth. I rolled over and looked at the clock next to my bed, "Great. That went well."

I got up and strolled to the kitchen to get a drink, then went to the living room, "Might as well get some work done. Not like I'm gonna get any more sleep tonight anyway."

"You always talk to yourself like that?" A tired voice asked from my couch.

I jumped, "Shit. What the hell are you still doing here?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just didn't want to leave you like that. I didn't know if you'd be ok or not. You kinda had me worried man."

"I'm sorry about that," I stated as I flipped a switch.

"Shit, coulda warned me man." He said covering his eyes.

I lower my head, "Sorry. Won't do it again."

"It's ok. Don't worry about it."

"You don't have to stay. You can go home. I'm sure you guys got a lot of work to do to find someone to replace Darren. You don't need to waste your time with me."

"What? You are amazing, so far. From what I've seen, we'd be crazy to let you go."

"So... You're not gonna..."

"Nope, you've got the job if you still want it."

"Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Well, you're still gonna have to prove yourself worthy but from what I saw this afternoon, I'm sure you'll do a great job."

"How can you say that? You don't even know me."

"I can see it in the way you move. Trust me but you'll be fine. Just go with you're instincts. Don't worry about Lance either. He knows he has to work just a bit harder and he's willing to put in the extra work."

"Thank you. I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. Go back in there and get some rest. I'm not the nicest person when I've been up all night and someone is trying to teach me new dance moves."

"Now, that I can do. See you in the morning."

"Night."

He lays back down on the couch, and I return to my room. I was certain I wouldn't get another moment of sleep but as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out cold.