Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 16:05:09 -0400
From: Writer Boy <writerboy69@hotmail.com>
Subject: thieves - part 4

Obligatory warnings and disclaimers:

1) If reading this is in any way illegal where you are or at your age, or
you don't want to read about male/male relationships, go away. You
shouldn't be here.

2) I don't know any of the celebrities in this story, and this story in no
way is meant to imply anything about their sexualities, personalities, or
anything else.  This is a work of pure fiction.

Questions and commentary can be sent to "writerboy69@hotmail.com". I enjoy
constructive criticism, praise, and rational discussion. I do not enjoy
flames, and will not tolerate them.

***

"Explain this to me again, just one more time," JC said carefully, his
voice firm but not angry, staring at Justin. Next to him, Joey was staring,
too, with the same look of open mouthed surprise. The whole story was just
so unbelievable that the two of them were having a little trouble putting
it all together. "Lance ran someone over, and you didn't call an
ambulance?"

"No," Justin answered, taking another bite of his banana. The three of them
were in Joey's suite having breakfast. They were all supposed to be there,
and Justin was trying, in his good natured, slightly dimwitted way, to
explain what had happened last night.  They loved him and all, like the
baby brother that he was, but he just really was a natural blond. "I mean
yes, that's right. No, we didn't call anyone."

Joey and JC looked at each other again.

"Why not?" JC asked. "Why didn't you call an ambulance?"

"And what happened to the guy?" Joey asked. "Is he dead? Did you guys leave
him somewhere?"

"Wait," Justin said, blinking. "Wait, I."

"And why was Lance driving to begin with?" JC continued.

"And where was Chris? You said something happened to Chris," Joey said.
"Where's he?"

"Too many questions," Justin said, blinking in confusion, the words
distorted around his mouthful of banana. "Gimme a second, ok?"

JC shook his head, smiling a little. It was frustrating trying to get
anything out of Justin, but also kind of funny. He meant well, he really
did, but he was like a giant child sometimes. It boggled JC's mind that
Justin, Wade, and Britney had managed to pull off the scam relationship
between Justin and Britney for so long, especially since she was about a
smart as he was. The two of them together added up to a brunette. JC took a
deep breath, making sure he didn't sound mad, because that would just make
Justin flustered, and they wouldn't get anything out of him.

"OK, Justin, why didn't you guys call an ambulance?" JC asked, putting a
hand on Joey's knee to silence him.

"I was going to," Justin said, taking another bite of banana. Watching it
roll around in his mouth as he talked wasn't quite the morning breakfast JC
dreamed of, and he almost wanted to tell him to just finish it before he
said anything else, but he really needed the rest of the story. Joey just
thought it was funny, and was waiting to see the look of shocked
disapproval that JC would make, almost involuntarily, when something
inevitably fell out of Justin's mouth. "I had my phone out and everything,
but Wade said we shouldn't call anyone."

"Wade said," JC repeated, his eyes narrowing a little. Justin didn't catch
it.

"Yeah, Wade said not to," Justin repeated, smiling and taking yet another
bite of his banana. Luckily for JC, it was almost gone, but he'd be
reaching for something else any second now.

"Wade," JC repeated, his mouth pressing into a firm line as he glanced at
Joey.

"Wade," Joey repeated, nodding.

While they were both very happy that Justin was happy, both of them would
have Wade out the door in a heartbeat if that ever changed. From the minute
they'd met him, Wade had started weaseling his way in, hanging out with
Justin, asking him to do stuff. First it was just showing him a couple
dance moves, then the two of them were sleeping together, and then Wade was
there, all the time, writing songs, giving Justin advice, and Justin just
followed along, because he trusted everyone, especially people who were
nice to him, and most especially people who said they loved him. As long as
Wade kept Justin happy, they didn't say anything, but if you didn't know
any better, you might even think Nsync had six members, rather than five.

"Yeah, Wade," Justin said, nodding. "He said that if an ambulance came, the
police might come, and it would look really bad for all of us."

"And what did you guys say?" Joey asked as JC shook his head, sighing.

"Well, Lance still wanted to take the guy to the hospital," Justin
said. "We figured we should get some kind of help for him, you know, since
he got hit by a car, but Wade said it would look really bad if I was there,
and Chris, too, since it was so late and Chris was drunk."

"So Wade thought you should go home and just leave Lance and this guy alone
at the hospital," Joey said, and Justin nodded.

"Of course he did," JC said, shaking his head in disgust.

"Did I hear my name?" Wade asked, opening the door to the suite. His hair
was still wet from the shower, and he was dressed, like Justin, in a
sleeveless t-shirt and pants. Wade crossed over to Justin and leaned down,
kissing him loudly, their tongues sliding into each other's mouths as JC
looked away and Joey rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "You taste like
bananas. Did you eat without me?"

"No," Justin answered, meeting Wade's grin with one of his own. "I was
hungry, so I had a banana, but I was waiting for you."

"I bet," Wade said, as Justin giggled. He walked over to the breakfast cart
and began lifting the covers on some of the dishes. "What are we having?"

"I thought we'd start with explanations," JC said smoothly, keeping all
sounds of irritation out of his voice.

"Excuse me?" Wade asked, looking up.

"Justin was just telling us how you convinced everyone that it was in their
best interests to send Lance to the hospital alone with the stranger that
he ran over," Joey said, smiling pleasantly. He'd been carrying a little
chip of his own since Wade had subbed for him during the "Pop" video
filming. It would have been a nice favor if Wade hadn't felt the need to
add, "I dance better than you, anyway."

"Oh," Wade said, turning to Justin. Justin was smiling, blissfully unaware
of what was going on around him.

"Yeah, I didn't get past that part, though, sweetie," Justin said,
shrugging.

"Why don't you tell us the rest, and let Justin grab some breakfast?" JC
suggested pleasantly.

"Well, what else is left?" Wade asked, following Justin to the breakfast
cart. JC and Joey followed as well, all of them grinning companionably at
each other.

"We just had a couple of questions," Joey said, nodding at JC.

"Why was Lance driving?" JC asked. "What was Keith doing?"

"He was helping Chris," Justin answered.

"Chris was really sick, and he started throwing up everywhere," Wade said.
"So we took him to the bathroom and Lance went to go get the car."

"Whose idea was it to have Lance drive?" JC asked. "I mean, we pay Keith
for a reason."

"He was trying to get Chris out of the club without anyone making a big
deal about it," Wade said. "I'm sure you can understand the need for
that. It was all happening really fast, and it just seemed easier at the
time for Lance to drive."

"OK, that makes sense," Joey said, shrugging, as he handed Wade the spoon
for the eggs.  He wanted to accidentally drop it, but JC was still waiting
for it, too.  "But what is this with you guys arguing what to do?"

"I told them about the ambulance and the police," Justin said, kissing Wade
on the cheek as he walked back over to the couch, balancing his overfilled
plate carefully. "Bring me some juice, Wade? Please?"

"Sure, babe," Wade said absently. "Well, like Justin said, we didn't think
it was a good idea for the police and an ambulance to show up."

"So you guys drove this guy to the hospital and left Lance there alone with
him?" Joey asked, his voice rising a little. "You drove away and left Lance
alone in the emergency room with a complete stranger?"

"Keith went back for him," Wade said defensively. "Keith didn't have a
problem with it."

"I'll talk to Keith later," JC said firmly. "Keith works for us, Wade. He
does what we tell him. I could care less what he was doing, since I'm a
little more concerned about you.  Since you were the one pushing to drive
him to the hospital yourselves, what were you doing?"

"Hey, don't give me that look," Wade said, holding up his hands. "Someone
needed to get Chris into bed, and I wanted to get Justin away from all
that, too. You know he's not good with stuff like that."

"And of course you protected him first," Joey said, frowning now. "Did you
even stop to think about Lance?"

"We told him to come back to the hotel with us," Wade said, maddeningly
casual as he just shrugged. "He didn't want to."

"He said he wanted to stay with the guy and make sure he was ok," Justin
added helpfully.

"And you guys didn't think to make sure Lance was ok?" JC asked, snapping
before he realized it. Justin's lip trembled. "I'm sorry, Curly, I didn't
mean to say it like that."

"Are you mad at me?" Justin asked, blinking quickly. "Wade said we didn't
do anything wrong, and we did help him. We took him to the hospital and
everything."

"It's fine, Justin," Wade said, sitting down beside him. He put a
comforting hand on Justin's shoulder, and smiled possessively at the
guys. "Nobody's mad at you. Right, guys?"

JC and Joey glanced at each other, both pissed, but they both knew to table
it for now.  There was no point in upsetting Justin, and putting a wedge
between them.  And really, what the others had done last night hadn't been
completely horrible. It was kind of their own fault for not leaving someone
responsible with them. With Joey gone, JC should have stayed, what with
Justin being so naive and Lance in that funk for the past couple
weeks. Usually Chris was ok to watch the other two, but neither JC nor Joey
had checked on him before they left. What had happened last night was
partially their fault, too, and they couldn't be mad at Justin for
following along, like he always did. As for Lance, he didn't usually need
watching, but lately he'd just been so down, so off, that maybe they
shouldn't have left him alone.

"We're not mad at you, Justin," Joey said, sighing. It was almost
pointless.  All they could do this morning was damage control, and try to
make sure that this didn't happen again.

"Like Joey said, we're not mad at you, Justin," JC said, sitting down
across from him.  Every once in a while he felt the need to wipe the smile
off Wade's face with his foot, but he thought of the ocean, the calming
waves crashing on a beach somewhere, and swallowed it. "But you need to
think about a few things, ok?"

"Like what?" Justin asked.

"Well, did anyone check on Chris this morning?" JC asked. Wade and Justin
looked guiltily at each other, which told JC he'd hit a bullseye. "What
about Lance? Did anyone talk to him last night? I mean, he ran someone
over. He was probably kind of upset. Did either of you check on him and
make sure he's ok?"

"Well, um," Justin began, looking almost painfully confused.

"Keith went back for him," Wade said quickly. "I'm sure if Lance wasn't ok
he would have called."

"That's another thing," Joey said. "Why didn't you guys call one of us?
Just to let us know what was going on?"

"Well, you went to bed early," Justin said, shrugging. "And JC had that
girl. Where did she go, anyway?"

"She, uh, she went home this morning," JC said quickly, blushing. Heather
hadn't landed in the "see again" pile, unfortunately. She'd been great in
bed, and really good to talk to, but she used JC's toothbrush this morning
without asking. He took her number, promising to call her, and tossed it in
the garbage on his way to breakfast.  "That's not important. You should
have tried to get one of us, just so we knew what was going on."

"OK," Wade said testily, tired of this thinly veiled lecture. "If we ever
run someone over again, we'll be sure to wake one of you."

"Your sarcasm isn't necessary," Joey said, pleased that they'd goaded Wade
into snapping at them in front of Justin. Point for their team in the
neverending grudge match.

"Don't snap at them, please," Justin said, frowning at Wade. He sounded a
little sad, chastised. "JC's right. We should have called, and we should
have checked on Lance."

"Well, there's no point in beating yourself up over it now," Joey said,
ignoring the fact that, even though they'd both spoken, Justin always
attributed everything to JC. "Why don't we just think about what we're
going to do today to make sure this is ok."

"I'll talk to Keith later," JC said. "He should have switched with Lance
once you were away from the club."

"Why don't you guys check on Chris?" Joey asked. "Make sure he's ok, find
him some aspirin, and get some breakfast into him."

"We can do that," Justin said, smiling and nodding, happy that nobody was
mad at him.  Maybe they'd screwed up a little, but everything would be
ok. "Right, sweetie?"

"Sure," Wade answered, squeezing Justin's leg. If Justin didn't want to
argue with his friends, Wade wasn't going to pick a fight with them. Later
he might talk to Justin about it, and make sure that Justin remembered
that, while his friends were nice and all, Wade always knew what was best
for him. A couple of kisses and a good fucking and Justin would be docile
once again. "We'll check on him as soon as we finish eating."

"And Joey and I can go check on Lance," JC said, smiling. "When I talk to
Keith later, we'll find out who the guy was, and check on him, too."

"Oh, I think he was a bum," Wade blurted thoughtlessly. "Nobody important."

Now all three of them were staring at him. Oooops.

"Everyone's important, Wade," Joey said icily. "No matter who they are."

"Of course," Wade said, squirming uncomfortably. "That came out all wrong."

"Sure it did," JC said, thinking about what a social climber Wade was.

"Right," Joey agreed, wondering how long it would be before Wade left
Justin for Ricky Martin.

The four of them finished their breakfast quickly, two of them wanting to
be away from the third, the third wanting to get the fourth somewhere quiet
to work on him, and the fourth eager to go check on his friend and
completely unconscious of anything going on with the other three. When they
finished eating, Justin and Wade beat a hasty retreat, promising to go
check on Chris and then to be in either his suite or their own for the rest
of the day until they heard from the other guys. After they left, JC and
Joey stared at each other, sighing, as they leaned back in their chairs.

"He seemed so nice," JC said finally, shrugging.

"Yeah," Joey said, shrugging. "You wouldn't think he'd turn out to be such
a fucking putz."

"You ready to go check on Lance?" JC asked, as if running down a mental
checklist in his head. Joey looked up at him, took a last sip of his
coffee, and stood.

"Let's go," Joey said.

They stood in the hallway, trying to picture what Lance would be like.
Neither was surprised that he had insisted on going to the emergency room
with the guy, because it was just the kind of thing that Lance would do. He
wouldn't do it for the reasons that Wade would, to make sure that the band
was ok and that their careers were intact. Lance would do it because it was
the right thing to do, because he would feel responsibility for someone
that he had personally hurt, but also because he would try to help anyone
if he could. Lance was always the one bringing wounded birds into his house
in shoeboxes, or feeding stray dogs outside of restaurants. Mainly they
were just worried that he hadn't gotten enough sleep, between being at the
hospital half the night and probably staying up the rest of it blaming
himself for something that, according to Justin, had happened so fast no
one would have been able to avoid it.

Joey tapped on the door softly, not wanting to wake Lance if he wasn't up
yet, and he and JC glanced at each other, waiting. JC started to lean
toward the door, listening for a television or even just for the sounds of
someone moving around, but he stepped back as it opened from the inside. As
surprised as he and Joey were to see someone other than Lance open the
door, the guy who opened it seemed equally surprised to see them.

"Uh, hi," JC sputtered, unsure of what to say. Lance hadn't had a hookup
sleep over in, well, ever, actually. When he'd been with Mike they'd been
dating for weeks before Lance had shared a hotel room with him.

"Um, good morning," Joey said, equally surprised. Where did Lance meet this
guy? The club? The hospital? When did Lance start bringing guys home,
anyway? He'd always been the take it slow, get to know you type.

The guy was cute, they had to give Lance that. Actually, he was almost more
than cute, with long blond hair pushed back from his head, falling like a
mane around his shoulders, straight and gleaming. His eyes were bright
blue, and his lean face was built on classic lines, with a good nose and a
high forehead. The only thing that might be called a flaw was the thinness
of his mouth, but the clean line of his jaw set it off well. They noticed
his wide shoulders, and the tracery of veins in his golden haired forearm
as he held the door open, but neither of them looked lower, to see the cast
on his leg, visible in the space where the buttons running up his pantleg
were undone.

"Lance?" Mitch called, noting the way that their eyes widened when they saw
him. As planned, Keith hadn't told anyone that he had brought Mitch back
with Lance, because they might have objected if they'd known last
night. Now that Lance had invited him, though, and spent so long talking to
him, he'd be a lot less likely to move Mitch to a room of his own. "Lance,
you have some guests."

"It's not breakfast?" Lance asked, walking out of the bedroom. He was
dressed, but still blotting at his hair with a towel, and he froze in the
bedroom doorway when he saw Joey and JC in the hall. Mitch stood by the
door, looking uncertain. "Oh, uh, hi guys. Come on in."

"If this is a bad time," JC began, glancing at Joey. Clearly Lance didn't
really need checking on.

"We didn't know you had, um, company," Joey said, catching JC's thought.
"We're going to um, to go, ok? I'll talk to you later."

"No, wait," Lance said. They thought he had hooked up with Mitch. He
couldn't believe it. They actually thought that he had just brought a
random guy home with him and had sex with him. "Are you here about last
night?"

"Yeah," JC answered, both of them looking at Mitch, trying to figure out
how much he knew about last night and what it might be safe to say in front
of him.

"Please come in," Lance said, stepping up next to Mitch. "Mitch, this is
JC, and Joey."

"Hi," Mitch said quietly, shaking both of their hands as he pretended not
to recognize them.

"Guys, this is Mitch," Lance said, watching them. They still hadn't put it
together.

"Lance took me to the hospital last night," Mitch supplied. They both
looked at him again, and then JC's eyes widened as he saw the cast on
Mitch's leg. Lance put a hand on Mitch's shoulder.

"Mitch, it's ok," he said, as the other two finally stepped into the room,
walking over toward the couch. Lance looked at them carefully. "I hit Mitch
with the van last night."

Joey and JC glanced at each other again, not sure if they should sit or
what. Both of them had been raised with good manners, but really, what did
you say to someone your friend ran over?

"Are you ok?" JC asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. He
wasn't completely sure which of them he was even asking.

"Well, um, I think so, mostly," Mitch answered. Like Lance, JC caught a
hint of southern in Mitch's voice, and wondered where he was from.

"Other than that leg, huh?" Joey asked, grinning, slapping Mitch
companionably on the back. He was pretty sure that the alleged homeless
"bum" was in fact wearing Lance's clothes, unless the street people were
cruising the sidewalks in Fila windpants and Calvin Klein t-shirts.

"Yeah, I guess," Mitch said, smiling uncertainly. He felt very crowded,
suddenly. He knew that he wasn't in any danger, not real, physical danger,
but he also knew that these two were the main obstacles to the plan. Joey
had Lance's ear, and JC was recognized by the others to be the smartest of
the group. He had to play these two carefully, and he fluttered his eyes
uncertainly at Lance.

"Guys," Lance said quickly, seeing that Mitch felt unsettled. He had a hand
on each of their arms, and gently pushed the two of them toward the
couch. "Please, don't crowd him. We had kind of a rough night, and we'll
tell you all about it if you want to stay for breakfast."

"Oh, we," Joey began, and JC elbowed him in the ribs.

"We'd love to join you," JC said smoothly. "If you're sure we're not
intruding. I mean, did you order enough?"

"I think so," Lance said, nodding. "You know, as long as neither of you are
starving."

"No, we'll be fine," Joey said. He sat with JC on the couch, and Lance sat
on a chair across from them. The three of them watched quietly as Mitch
awkwardly tottered from the door to a side chair on his crutches, making
sure that he looked appropriately awkward and pitiful. JC and Joey watched
carefully, but Lance had a look of pinched concern on his face.

"Do you need help, Mitch?" he asked, starting to rise.

"No, Lance, no, I'm ok," Mitch said quickly, wanting to look a little weak
for Lance, but not too dependent in front of JC and Joey. So far it looked
like he was hitting just the right chord. "I got it."

"Are you sure?" Lance asked again, waiting to make sure Mitch was settled
in his chair.

"Yeah, thanks," Mitch said. He smiled at Lance, and was pleased to see
Lance smile warmly back. He glanced at the other two, deciding to flash a
little bit of an edge. No reason for them to keep the advantage. He kept
his voice light. "What? Never seen a guy on crutches before?"

"Sorry," they both said together, glancing away. Neither had realized they
were staring, but they'd both been caught, and they could both see how a
stranger might find it a little uncomfortable.

"It's ok," Mitch said, smiling at them. "Is your friend, um?"

"Chris?" Lance asked him. Mitch nodded.

"Is your friend Chris ok?" Mitch asked. He was actually pretty worried
about Chris, since he knew that Keith had slipped some sort of drug into
Chris's drink. He was uncomfortable with that part of the plan, because it
involved directly, physically hurting someone, and he had never done
that. He wanted to find some other way to take care of Chris, but Keith had
insisted that this was easier. "I mean, I was a little distracted, but I
remember that he was pretty much out of it."

"He's sleeping it off," Joey said. Lance smiled at Mitch's concern, and
Joey caught it.  This could be an issue, these doe eyes that Lance was
making. Joey hadn't seen that look in a while, but he still recognized
it. What surprised him was that Lance himself seemed unaware. "Our other
friends are checking on him."

"It was nice of you to ask, though," JC said, smiling. So far he seemed
nice, but they'd only spoken to him for a minute or two. "I'm a little
concerned about you, though. I'm guessing the cast is from last night?"

"Yeah, it is," Lance answered. He didn't want Mitch to feel like he was
selling him out to his friends. "I don't know how much Justin and Wade told
you, but I tapped Mitch with the front bumper of the van. His leg is
cracked, but not broken."

"Nothing else, though," Mitch added quickly. "I'm just a little bruised,
but nothing else is broken."

"That's good to hear," JC said quickly. This guy didn't really seem like
the type to sue, but the fewer the injuries, the better, just in case. "How
are you feeling?  Is there a lot of pain?"

"Not really," Mitch said, as the other two just watched. Lance was watching
Mitch, and Joey was watching Lance, the wheels in his head turning
quickly. He wanted Lance to meet someone, but they didn't know anything
about this guy, anything at all, and Lance was already making eyes at
him. Fortunately the guy didn't seem to be making any eyes back. "I mean,
there's a little ache, but I'm ok. The sleep helped a lot.  It's been, you
know, it's been a long time since I slept in a bed that big, that soft."

"It's the least I could do," Lance said, smiling at him.

Joey glanced at JC, who nodded. They needed to split these two up, and
figure out what was going on. Mitch was probably completely harmless, a
random hot guy that Lance happened to run over, but still, Lance was in a
tremendously dangerous position. What if Mitch decided to sue? What if this
whole thing came out, especially now that the guys last night had more or
less orchestrated their own coverup? They needed to know more about Mitch,
and Joey needed to figure out what Lance was feeling. Just as he was trying
to figure out how they could separate them, there was a knock at the door.

"That must be breakfast," Lance said, smiling. "JC, could you sign for
that?  Now that Mitch is up, and doesn't have a concussion, I want to grab
him a pain pill from the bedroom."

"Lance, I can get one myself," Mitch began, starting to rise.

"No, no, stay down," Lance said, making a sitting motion with his hand.
"I'll get it."

"And I'll get breakfast," JC said, moving toward the door.

Joey followed Lance into the bedroom, and Lance spun a little as he heard
the door close behind him.

"Joey?" Lance asked, holding the bottle of pills. "What are you doing?"

"Lance, bud, we need to talk."

***

To be continued.