Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 12:28:06 +0800
From: yuli <busta@yifan.net>
Subject: Busta 12

Disclaimer: This is FICTION! I.e. nothing written here is real. It only
happened in my brain. :b

Warning: Bad English, Foul words and a dog. :b ok, seriously, um, this part
doesn't have a proper finished, the next part will have a proper finish [I
hope].

First of all, I'd like to say I'm sorry for the delay. I'm only got one
explanation. I was not happy with all the drafts I made hence I re-wrote it
over and over again. I'm sorry if it upsets you all, my email is up there,
fill free to scream at me for my lateness...and again, I'm sorry.

Next, this story doesn't make sense when read alone, please read the
previous chapter before continuing.

Thank you notes: :D
I'd like to thank all these people for giving my story a chance, and for
writing to me, and most importantly for the wait.
Candice [For the screaming note. The first one I've gotten], Achane [For the
weired psychiatric note, The first one I've gotten too. :D Thank you for
giving me the confidence to post this part. Thanks.], Farah [I think Farah
is nice person. :D], Justin [The avid reader of all stories on the boy-band.
:D thanks for giving my story a chance], KB79 [The encouraging note. Yes,
boss I'll try to keep up the good work as you say.], Kiefer King [one of the
fews that read 1-11 at one go, I'm very flattered and grateful. Thank you],
Andyz [N'sync has fans in Italy. :D I'm glad. Thanks for reading this]

Ackowledgment notes:
Life is tough without friends, hence I'd like to dedicate this story 'Busta'
to my friends. To Jon, Ton, Jam, Clive, Mr Moon and Francis. Wishing them a
carefree and happy life like Busta's. :)

Summary: Found Lance but he's all closed up in emotional sense. Chris and
gang have to find a way before all those bottled up emotions kill their friend.


Busta 12
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Chris' point of view]

We drove quietly for hours, following Jim's car in my Station Wagon, Joey
slept beside me while I drove and Justin was holding the mumbling JC till
they too slept from exhaustion. Me? [Shake head] I'm hyped-up by nature and
needs to avoid sugar, don't need to sleep much and needs a dog for my excess
energy.

Frankly I'm grateful that the only thing I had to do is to follow Jim's car
cos I have actually no idea how he could see anything at all in the dark. By
the time we got there it's almost close to 2 in the morning, and I have to
admit that the church looks pretty impressive. Old and huge and on a hilltop.

"We're here!" I shouted and they jump and got out of the car so quickly I
wondered if they were asleep at all.

JC ran into the church and broke through the door as he shouted "James!"

We got in a minute later and the sight before me shook me. It wasn't Lance
drench in blood or Lance pointing a gun that shocked me, it's Lance holding
a dead body and looking like a wild trapped animal that shocked and scared me.

"Easy," said Jim holding JC back.

"James?" asked JC uncertainly as he looked at the blood and the dead body.

Lance didn't acknowledge him but continued to dart his eyes around and
hugged the dead body tightly mumbling to himself, his body twitching as if
waiting for something to happen.

"James," said JC louder, this time falling to his knees.

Lance reacted and points the gun to JC and stared at him.

"JC!" shouted Justin in fear and about to pull his friend back.

Jim quickly pulled Justin away, in time to avoid the bullet that was shot
from Lance's gun to the ground that was originally occupied by Justin's leg.

"Fuck!" Joey and I said as we jump onto the benches.

In my mind I know that Lance is in some kind of shock and doesn't know what
he's doing but in my heart I felt betrayed that he couldn't recognized any
of us. I look back to him and noticed JC didn't even twitch as the gun went
off.

"James," whispers JC and the gun points back to him and so did the pair of
eyes that he so loved. "James," he whispers again, moving closer to Lance,
letting the gun point to his heart.

Lance stared at him, though still holding that wild crazy look, he tilted
his head and looked at JC as if trying to assess him.

"JC? Lance?" calls out Justin, in fear, tears running down his eyes with so
much sadness that I could only imagine what is going through his mind as he
faces two of his best friend like that.

I look back to the scene before me then look up to Jesus who seems to be
looking at us. I closed my eyes and prayed, "Dear God, don't let any of them
die. Please, I know I have not been praying and I know this is very
hypocritical of me, but please neither of them deserves this. Please." I
begged and Joey just choked and mumbled then cry.

JC wiped his tears away, then cleared his throat and sang.

No matter what they tell us
No matter what they do
No matter what they teach us
What we believe is true

He continued singing boyzone's song 'No matter what' and slowly the wildness
in Lance's eyes seems to be fading. As singing was their form of expressing
the love they held for each other. Lance singing, sometimes, country songs
and JC crooning his pop love songs. And this was a particular song of the
month that Lance love and JC sang.

"Please please," I closed my eyes and continued to pray as the song was
coming to and end. "Let him remember." I prayed.

The song ended and I opened my eyes and held my breath as I saw the gun in
Lance's hands fall. Then he started to smile sideways and reach out to JC.

"Josh," he said, starting his smile, reaching out to JC with his bloodied
hands. Then suddenly stopped and stared at his hands.

Lance looked to his hands then to the body beside him and his lips trembled
as he screams at the top of his voice. He screamed and screamed holding
tightly to his own body and frantically moving away from the dead body and us.

"James!" shouted JC shot forward and hugged Lance's struggling body in his
arms. "James," he tried to pacify him but Lance continued to scream on the
top of his voice, struggling from JC's arms.

"Fuck," I cursed 'He's hyperventilating, do something!' I scolded myself and
rush to Lance's side who's still screaming. "Make room!" I shouted then
place the flesh part of my palm into Lance's mouth and hissed when he bites
it. "Shit."

"James," JC cried and hugged Lance's body tight.

"Call the ambulance." Shouted someone.

"I am!" shouted someone else.

By then I was beyond care about my surrounding as I hugged this two friends
in my chest and silently tried to curse the pain of my bleeding palm away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Busta's point of view]

"Yes! Right there, that's the spot. Ohhhh, mmmm, that's it, mooorrreee," I
purred.

"DAD! You're spoiling him!" scolded the man-boy.

"He's nice Daryl, and he's weak and needs lots of cuddling." Explains my
human scratcher. "Besides, he's a good dog."

"Dad," started the teenager, sounding like a schoolteacher about to lecture
a 6-year-old kid. "Dad, he just bit you. You shouldn't encourage his
behavior by petting him."

"Hey! I bit him because he's mean!" I grumbled, then turn slowly to my
stomach, "Besides, I'm an injured warrior, I need pampering."

RIIIINNNNGGGGG! Said the irritating black box, human calls telephone.

"Banks," said the teenager. "Yeah he's here, hold on. Dad, for you."

"Halo?" said big Afro-American man as he took the black thing from
hormone-driven human's hands. "Chris, is everything alright?"

'Chris? Me master?...me master!!!!' "MASTER Chris!" I barked excitingly and
tried to get up, too quickly, and fall back, wincing from the pain on my back.

"Yeah, he's fine...the vet did a small surgery to patch his broken bones
together...he needs to rest for at least 3 months..." said my human
scratcher, looking at me with pitiful eyes.

"Master Chris! Let me go!" I barked and struggled.

"You guys found him?" asked big guy then frowning at the information.

"That bad huh?...yeah, I'll take care of him, don't worry...You coming
over?...Sure, I'll see you tonight...yeah, ok, bye." With that he placed the
black thingy back to it's parent big black thingy and smiled at me.

"Chris is coming, so be a good dog and don't move so much. Just...Stay." he
said the last word coupled with this weird hand movement that humans use
when they want us to stay.

'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stupid hand sign.' I snorted and rest my head back on the
soft couch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Chris' point of view]

'At least Busta's ok.' I thought, then turn to the despairing sight before me.

Joey is chewing his thumb and acting like everything is ok now. Justin is
pacing along the corridor and walking back to the room and peeking at Lance
ever time he passes by. JC...well, JC is blinking. 'Blinking is good, it's a
sign of being alive...though...a dead corpse can have sudden spasm and
blinked too...' I thought, then sigh and sat beside Joey, absentmindedly
pulling Joey's thumb out off his mouth.

Lance suffered from broken ribs and a fractured wrist and ankle, broken
lips, black eye. Physically he's ok, but because he went through some kind
of shock, they had to sedate him and we're all waiting in the room for him
to...wake up or something...

"Here," a coffee was shoved into my face and I took it, mumbling my thanks.
"Why is Justin pacing?" asked Blair then turn to look at Joey funnily which
is a signal to me that he had placed his thumb into his mouth again.

"It's his de-stress method." I said as I reach beside me and took the thumb
out of Joey's mouth again. "Bit on the cup." Placing the coffee on his
hands. Joey took the cup and started biting the edge while sipping the coffee.

"Oh," said Blair, raising his eyebrows in understanding as he watches Joey.
"Um, ok...so, um...that is ok too?" asked Blair pointing to JC.

"That," I started and let out a breath of resign, "is being alive."

Blair raised his eyebrow and hummed before shrugging and sitting down beside
me whilst handing me another cup of coffee.

"Where's Jim?" I ask sipping my cup of coffee.

"He went back to the station." Sipping his cup of tea and pausing for a very
long minute later he said, "Chris you know that Jim had to come back and
interrogate Lance."

It was meant to be a statement, a fact but for communicative sake I nod my
head in answer. "I know, but it's not my call, it's up to JC."

"Not Lance?"

I shook my head and said, "Lance would be agreeable to anything you suggest
as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else other than himself. So you can ask
him. But JC...he's sort of territorial..."

"Ok," Blair held out his palms up and nods his head, "Yeah, I understand. No
explanation needed."

I thought for a while then snorted, "Jim's the same huh?"

"Yeah, he's way territorial." Said Blair shaking his head.

"Baby?" said JC, interrupting our conversation.

I look up to see Lance rubbing his eyes and blinking, we quickly moved to
his bedside and waited for his first words.

Lance turned to JC and let out a lazy smile, "Joshua." He whispers, making
JC blush and smile.

Joey let out a breath or relief, thinking that Lance is ok, whilst Blair and
I held our breath and waited nervously.

Lance reach out and touches JC's face, smiling till he took a curious look
at his own hands.

"Baby?" asked JC quickly as he took Lance's hands into his, I guess in
anticipation that he'll scream again.

"Josh...where's my watch?" asked Lance in confusion.

"Watch?" asked JC, doing the blinking in confusion thing again.

"I can't remember where I left my watch..." said Lance, frowning, trying to
recall.

I looked at Blair and mouthed the word, 'Denial', and Blair gravely nods his
head while Joey went back to chewing his thumb.

"The ones with our initials?" asked JC, quickly recovering from this bizarre
question.

"I love that watch." Said Lance, frowning even further.

"It's ok, JC will get another one for you." Said Joey pulling out his thumb
momentarily.

"I will get you another one." JC nods his head quickly to the suggestion,
patting Lance's hand at the same time.

"LANSTERN!" shouted a voice and I was shoved away by the huge over-grown
hormone-driven teenager, called Justin, as he hugged his friend and started
blabbering something to his shoulders.

As Justin envelope Lance in his arms, JC took this chance to turn to me and
mouthed. 'Help.'

I calmly tap my head three times to indicate that I have a plan, and that
relieved a couple of frowns from his head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[A few suns later, Busta's point of view]

"You sure it's ok for Busta to come?" asked Hairball as he placed me in me
Master's soft leather bag.

"Yes, I'm sure it's ok. The doctors would be there if any complication in
his breathing arise." Replied me Master.

We're now sitting in a big moving brown box [AN car] and am on our way to
see Lance. Though I'm not as devoted to Lance as I am to me Master, I still
am concern about him, cos...well, he's the only one left that knows I prefer
chicken treats to bone treats, and he's new house got a huge patch of
grassland for me to bury stuffs. :b

"No, I mean...what if he freaks out on us." Said Hairball.

Me Master sigh and lectured in a resigned tone. "It's our only chance of
getting him to remember. Blair, you and I both know that the longer he stays
in his cocoon of denial the harder it would be for him next time."

"Yeah...but what can Busta do?" asked Hairball.

"HEY! THAT'S RUDE!" I barked.

Me Master chuckled and rubbed my head affectionately. "His presents maybe
able to trigger some reaction from Lance."

"Ok," said Hairball rubbing his head and frowning at the same time.

"It's his hair, Master. All those hair is making him stupid, thus he's
taking a longer time to understand your wisdom." I said to me Master.

"You're chatty today." Said me Master with the kindest smile.

[Busta stops telling story and asked author if she wants to know how
wonderful Chris is. Author holds Busta's dog bone hostage and peace is
restored.]

Jim 'I am a rock' Ellison absentmindedly reach out to massage Hairball's
neck. Almost immediately, the confusion on his face was lifted away as his
eyes lit up in understanding of me Master's words.

"See! Lesser hair, smarter brain." I smirked.

"Ok, what about JC? Does he agrees to this?" asked hairball.

"JC...he's the panicky one right?" interrupted the balding rock.

"I did talk to him, and he agreed to it. Anything to help Lance would be
agreeable to him. And," turning to the rock, "He's no longer panicky. He
say, I quote, 'James needs me to be strong, so I will be.' I don't think
he'll panic too much now that Lance is back." Said me Master as he closed
the bag up, leaving me in partial darkness.

'This is nice.' I thought to myself as I patted the soft leather, better
than the turtle shell.

"That's true," said the rock. His voice filled with understanding, as if he
could really feel what JC is going through.

"Jim," said hairball [AN Blair] in a concern tone.

The rest of the conversation is lost cos' I'm in the dark and they're
outside. And nope, I'm not talking about real voice conversation, but the
body's language that I'm missing. Anyway, I know we're moving and from past
experience I learn to shut up, not move so much and wait, and I didn't have
to wait long.

"Hey guys," said me Master's voice, "Hey Lance."

"Chris," said Lance in his usual soft motherly tone.

"Chris," said JC stiffly, my guess is that he must be nervous about this
whole meeting.

"Lance, how are you feeling today?" asked Blair in a very kind tone. Almost
like Lance, but better, more motherly feeling.

I sat blinking and waiting and peaking at the small opening of the bag.
'Should I go out? Should I not go out? Should I go out? Should I not go
out?' my little smart mind chanted.

"Better." Said Lance, his tone almost guarded.

"Lance this is my partner Jim Ellison and he's going to want to ask you some
questions." Said Blair, again in his soft-motherly tone.

'Should I go out? Should I not go out?' my mind continued to chant.

"Josh?" said Lance this time in a tone that revealed the fact that he's scared.

"It's ok love, it's alright, I'm here." Coach JC.

'If I go out later, would Lance just past out and die?' I wonder.

"I just need to know a couple of things that had happened to you." Started Jim.

"I do not know anything, I can't remember anything. Make them leave Joshua."
Begged Lance.

'Yup, if I don't go out now, he'll forget that I like chicken treat.' I
thought to myself and struggled in the bag and barked loudly...don't stare
at me like that! It's just barking, it has no meaning. Gees, some humans.
[Busta shaking head] ;b

"Ok! Ok!" said me Master as he open up the bag and out I came, or I came
out. :b bad English.

"Halo cucumber, you look very white today." I barked as I trotted through
the bed sheet and moved to his side. "Make way carrot!" I barked at JC.

"Busta," said Lance, his voice in disbelieved, countered with a touch of
relieved of seeing me. He took me in his arms and said, "You're safe."

"Yes, yes. I'm safe. And so are you, thanks to my brilliant work of getting
the rest of the guys see the bloody message, aren't I smart." I barked.

Lance choked, let out a small chuckle, his eyes filled with unshed tears as
he speaks. "I'm so glad you're ok."

"We're ok," I barked happily. "We're both ok. So don't go do the 'I forgot
where I left the bone' thing on me, cos' that's my trademark not yours. I
know you can still remember stuffs."

"Lance?" asked Blair in concern.

"James?" JC sat on the bed side and pulled the trembling cucumber into his
carrot arms. "It's ok baby. It's ok."

'Huh?' "What's ok?" I asked.

Lance didn't cry, he sniffled and wiped his away his unshed tears and looked
to Jim and asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Tell me what happened." Said Jim, and the rock actually looked kind.

It was a long and tedious processes with me waiting impatiently for my turn
to ask Lance if he could still remember what kind of treat I like. The basic
of the conversation is, psycho and Lance drove up to the church and reach
there close to nightfall. They were met up with three dudes holding baseball
bats. All was fine till psycho mentioned that they were there to get married.

"Blah, blah, blah!" I barked irritatingly, "Are you done yet?"

Jim took this opportunity to ask, "Why didn't you ask them for help?"

Lance looked at him as if looking for the neon sign that says, 'I'm stupid.'
Then sigh and said, "Jordan had a gun, I couldn't risk having any one get hurt."

Jim stupidly nods his head and noted it down in his little notepad. "And
then what happened?"

I patted Lance's thigh and explained, "Rocks has no brains."

"When they found out that we're fags," the last word was spit out like vile
by Lance, making everyone wince in discomfort. "They decided that we needed
a lesson." He was suddenly quiet after the last word.

And as usual, me the wonderful caring dog decided to wake him up from his
trance by nuzzling his hands. "Hey stupid! Don't tell me your brain turned
to a cucumber again." I said nicely.

Lance looks down to me and gave me a weak smile and a head rub before
continuing his story. "They hit us...Jordan could have shot them, but he
was...he was taking those blows and protecting me. There was blood all over
the place...so much blood."

Lance looked at both of his hands and went into his 'I'm in Lala land' thing
again. 'A dog's work is never done.' I sighed and reach up and tried to bit
his hands.

"Busta!" scolded JC as he smacks me away.

"[Grumble, mumble] Big bully [Grumble, mumble] brainless piece of carrot
[Grumble, mumble]" I sulked and turned my head away from JC then crawled
back to my Master's side. "Hug me?" I asked using my best pug eye
expression, and as expected, me Master made soft and comforting cooing sound
to ease the slap. 'I'll get you for this.' I swore and stared at JC.

"They hit him...then somehow they separated us and started hitting
me...Jordan got angry pulled out his shotgun..."

JC held Lance's body tighter to his chest and rubs Lance's cold body, urging
him to continue with the story.

Lance used the warmth from his lover's body as an anchor to continue his
story. "I shouted a warning and one of them manage to hit the shotgun away
from his hands before he could fire...One of the guys took his bat and hit
Jordan...the rest followed...I keep hearing the cracking sound of bones
breaking. I screamed and begged for them to stop but they seemed to be
posses, hitting, screaming at Jordan. While I was kicked and pushed away
every time I tried to get them away from Jordan..."

Lance stopped his story and looked to JC, his eyes so sad, so full of pain
that the only thing JC could do is to look brave and hugged him tighter
while whispering words of encouragement.

"So? What else happened? Don't tell me I got smack because of that!" I
barked, still pissed off for being smacked at.

"Shuu," said me Master soothingly, rubbing my head.

Lance looked at me for a moment and asked, "Can I hold him?"

Me Master looked at him in surprise, then quickly recovered by passing me
into Lance's arms.

Lance let out a weak smile as he hugged me and said, "You made it bearable
during that night."

"Yeah, well, gees, you're making me blush." I barked as I blushed. After all
this years, Lance is still my knight in shinning armor, he knows what I love
to eat and always defended me when Ju boy gets nasty. "I like you too Lance.
So tell us who bullied you, I'll bite his balls off." I promised.

"Lance?" Jim prompted, "What happened?"

Lance looked at him sadly and said, "I think I killed someone."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

um, more?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So Long as we love, we serve.
So long as we are loved by others,
I would almost say we are indispensable;
and no man is useless while he has a friend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~