Chapter 71

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Chapter 71

"Where the hell did I put that pen?" Joey wondered out loud, searching through stuff on the table.

"DID YOU JUST ASK WHERE YOU PUT THE GUN?" one of the guys called from the other room.

"NO! I said PEN!" Joey yelled back, rolling his eyes. "I KNOW I put it here somewhere..." He felt something hard hit him on the head and looked on the floor to see his pen. "Where did that-- LANCE!" He bent down to pick it up, and when he stood up and looked at his table, a note was there, undoubtedly written with his pen.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of being crazy."

"Thanks, Lance. Now where on that list does being hit in the head with a missing pen that came out of NOWHERE go?"

There was a few seconds, and Joey watched in amazement as something else was written out. "#17"

"Thanks." He didn't bother asking what the other fifteen were. It was highly unlikely that he'd get a straight answer out of the man.

"Joey?"

Joey spun around, eyes wide. "Oh, it's just you."

"Who are you talking to?" JC asked, ignoring the comment.

"Who do you think?" Joey muttered, then he shuddered. "You little punk, what are you tryin' to do? You gotta stop takin' things so personally," he said.

"Lance is in here?" JC asked quietly.

Joey fell silent, suddenly remembering exactly why JC was so interested in Lance. "Uh, yeah...Look, I'm sorry--" He looked down at the sudden message.

"YOU REMEMBERED AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"Um, whoops?" Joey said.

"What?" JC asked. Joey held up the piece of paper. "Dude, it's blank," JC said.

Joey looked at it. "Oh," he said intelligently. "Well, he's yelling at me for not telling him that I remembered him."

JC chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Oh, well, I guess I'll let you two...talk..."

"No, Jace...what did you come in here for?" Joey asked, desperate to keep his friend in the room.

"I don't remember," JC said truthfully, hand resting against the door frame. He shrugged. "Wasn't...it wasn't important anyway." He turned around and left the room with a sigh.

Joey squeezed his eyes shut. "Stupid, Fatone. You're such an idiot!" Suddenly he saw Lance standing in front of him.

"I'm gonna go and--"

"Go, go, go," Joey said, shaking his head, not really noticing the oddity of having the angel just pop up in front of him. "I'll be okay for a couple minutes." He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well..." Lance looked towards the door. "Maybe I can do something..." He ran in the direction JC went, and Joey was surprised to hear his footsteps lightly plodding down the hallway.

Lance saw JC sitting in bed, clutching a pillow and looking out the window. He saw the tears that threatened to fall and hated that he was the cause of them. He sat down and slowly started rubbing JC's back.

JC suddenly turned around, blue eyes wide. He shook his head and continued to look out the window when he felt something on his back again. He looked around the room a little fearfully.

Lance's eyes were wide. Could JC feel him? Then he remembered -- he'd gone into the form where Joey could see him; last time he'd done that, JC could feel him. He decided to just go with it, deciding some contact was better than none.

JC turned around one more time. "Lance?" he asked quietly. He felt pressure on his shoulder and his eyes widened even more. "Lance?" he asked again. "Is that you? Do it um...twice if it is," he added quickly. He felt it twice and gasped. "Oh, Lance...I've missed you so much..." He clutched the pillow in his hands closer to his body. "I can't...I..." He felt the warmth surround him and he closed his eyes with a sigh. "I know you can hear me, I know you're here," he laughed a little with a sniffle. "And now I can't think of a single thing I want to say to you." He felt what he assumed to be arms wrap around tighter. For the sake of conversation, he started talking. "You know, I wonder if I can get the other two to remember you like Joey does. I think Joey remembered cause he sort of...knows you better, ya think?" He felt a squeeze on his shoulder so he continued. "This is really weird. Anyway, I don't even know why I want them to remember you. I mean there's SOMETHING in my mind that's telling me I have to...and I had this dream that I was with you...in heaven, I guess, for a little while, but I don't remember much. Except talking to God. Weird, isn't it? ME, talk to GOD. Maybe I am crazy. That might be the reason I want to tell them; just so they don't think I'm crazy. Because I KNOW you were here, and that you're here now, I can't make that stuff up..."

"I never knew you could look so sexy," Justin droned out in a monotone. "Wow the girls will scream for you."

"Shut up, Mufasa," Chris said. "I never asked for your opinion." He pulled on his shirt. "Not that I WANT it."

Joey walked through the room and tossed chocolate chip cookies at the two of them. "Both of you shut up," he said.

They eagerly devoured them. "Rank rou Roey," Justin said, his mouth full.

"That's disgusting," Joey commented, walking up the stairs.

"YOU LOVE IT!"

Joey rolled his eyes and continued, stopping when he heard talking. He poked his head in a room and saw Lance holding JC, who was rambling about something like Justin believing him before Chris would and looking rather tired. JC was leaning into the embrace, and Joey knew that somehow, he felt Lance behind him. Both were looking out the window, and Joey smiled slightly and continued down the hallway, looking around for the extra controller for the Playstation. "Idiot...what the hell is it doing in the bathroom?" he asked with a sigh, then picked it up and started going back downstairs. He looked into JC's room, and saw that the two had changed positions. JC was laying down on the bed, and Lance was running his fingers through JC's hair. JC was most definitely asleep, Joey noticed, yet Lance was talking quietly to someone he couldn't see, and was lying down next to JC, propped up on his elbow. Joey shook his head with a smile, and went back downstairs.

"So what?" Joey asked. "The peanut butter ones are SO much better."

"No way!" Chris argued. "Cheese all the way. Peanut butter is too much like a sandwich."

"So is cheese," Joey countered.

Chris made a face. "That's disgusting. Cheese sandwich? Gross."

"It's true!" Joey said. "You take a piece of cheese, put it on some bread, then plop another piece down. Voila, cheese sandwich."

"The only way I'll eat a cheese sandwich is if it's grilled cheese," Chris said, shaking his head.

"Yet you'll eat THOSE?" Joey pointed at the food in Chris' hand with disdain.

"What in the world are you two talkin' about?" Justin asked.

"JOEY here seems to think that the mini Ritz with peanut butter in the middle are better," Chris began. "But, we ALL know that the crackers with cheese in the middle are undeniably the better snack food," he finished matter-of-factly. "So, what do YOU think?"

Justin looked at them oddly. "You've been talking about that for a half an hour? Guys, you need a life."

"Can I have yours?" Chris asked, abandoning his mini-crackers. He jumped up.

"Pretty please? I want eleven year olds in baby blue tube tops throwing themselves at me everyday!" He dove down and attached himself to Justin's leg. "Please? They'll love me SO much better anyway, cause I'm sexy. You ain't. Pretty please with a cherry on top? Come on, I want the eleven year olds!" He clawed at Justin's jeans.

Justin shook his leg. "Man, get your arms off me! JC!" he complained seeing his friend walk into the room with a soda in his hand.

JC raised an eyebrow at what he was seeing. "I'm not so sure I wanna know," he said.

"No, help me get him off," Justin pleaded. "Dude, get OFF me!" He balanced on one leg and kicked Chris with his free one. "Dammit, let go!" JC kicked at Chris. "I think he's stuck," he commented. "Wonder how we'll explain THAT one to PR." He suddenly thought of something. "Hey, J, I need to talk to you," he said. "So Chris, ya gotta get your ugly butt off him." "Why does everyone think I'm so ugly?" Chris complained. "I ain't ugly. I'm pretty." He untangled himself from Justin's leg and stood up, going back to his chair. "And the cheese ones are SO much better."

"What'd ya need, C?" Justin asked, coming into JC's room and opening the soda.

JC picked at the tab of his own nervously. "Well, um," he stopped when he heard the annoying plunking noises his finger was making with the tab, so he put the soda down on the desk and sat on the bed. He didn't know where to start. Joey had been so much easier. "Well, there's the--ugh. Okay, you remember my dreams and Joey's angel, right?"

"Of course I do," Justin said, looking at him a little oddly. "Why wouldn't I?"

JC raked a hand through his hair and continued. "And you know how in all my dreams, Ken is replaced by La--" he stopped and groaned in frustration, practically pulling his hair out. "Okay, let me start again," he said, searching his memory for something -- ANYTHING -- that might make Justin remember. Somehow, he didn't think telling a million different things he'd done would help...Then he remembered that Justin, for whatever reason, had loved the little inter-band "Civil Wars" they'd had. "Hey," he said, "Do you remember, how, in the Civil War, there was the North and like, Lincoln against the South and that Confederate President dude? What's his name, Davis? Yeah...and...and...Union against Confederacy?"

"Duh." That was a pointless string of questions if Justin had ever heard one from JC. Of COURSE Justin had heard of the Civil War. How could he have passed high school if he didn't? Forget that, how would he be a halfway normal citizen if he didn't know that there had been a Civil War? Justin sighed inwardly. JC was really losing it.

"Work with me here. Anyway, there was...okay, what would you think if we had one of our own?" JC asked.

Justin looked worried. "Jace, are you like, mad at the other guys? Is that what this is about? Are you like--"

"No, no no," JC said. This wasn't how he'd planned it at all. "What I mean is, you know, like...fake. Like, you're from the South, and--"

"Oh, I get it," Justin said with a short nod. "But that wouldn't be fair; I'd get my ass kicked. I mean, you never fool around, well, not anymore, and like, I'm the only southerner...Joey's from New York, Chris is from Pennsylvania, and Ken's from Maine, you know that. So..."

THIS was what JC wanted Justin to say. "Okay," he said quickly. "What if I told you that there WAS another person from the South in the band?" This sounded bad, but he decided to go with it anyway.

"C, what are you getting at?"

"Lance."

"Lance, the guy from your dream or Lance the guardian angel?"

"They're the same person!" JC said. "They're the same. Joey's angel was part of the band in the dreams...and he's from Mississippi...and he'd--"

"JC, I still don't know what you're trying to say."

JC pulled his hair in frustration. "I'll just say it. LANCE would be on your side, instead of Ken being on Chris and Joey's side. Lance WAS on your side, when he was still here. It was one of the times he'd actually wrestle; I'd always beg off, remember? You HAVE to remember."

"JC, how can I remember something that never happened?" Justin was worried. JC was really sounding crazy.

This wasn't working and JC just blew up. "I'm NOT crazy and I'm NOT making it up! He REALLY was here, I swear, he was here for five years! FIVE YEARS he was here!" He calmed down a little. "J, Lance would be on your side when we had our Civil Wars. He'd fight Chris and Joey with you, you guys would always trash talk each other...He'd be on your side, instead of Ken being on Chris and Joey's side, he'd be here singing the bass parts instead of Ken, just like he'd be here for me to love with all my heart instead of Ken being here for me to HATE with all my soul."


	Inner Reflection \| home back to Sent From Above Chapter 71 "Where the hell did I put that pen?" Joey wondered out loud, searching through stuff on the table. "DID YOU JUST ASK WHERE YOU PUT THE GUN?" one of the guys called from the other room. "NO! I said PEN!" Joey yelled back, rolling his eyes. "I KNOW I put it here somewhere..." He felt something hard hit him on the head and looked on the floor to see his pen. "Where did that-- LANCE!" He bent down to pick it up, and when he stood up and looked at his table, a note was there, undoubtedly written with his pen. "Talking to yourself is the first sign of being crazy." "Thanks, Lance. Now where on that list does being hit in the head with a missing pen that came out of NOWHERE go?" There was a few seconds, and Joey watched in amazement as something else was written out. "#17" "Thanks." He didn't bother asking what the other fifteen were. It was highly unlikely that he'd get a straight answer out of the man. "Joey?" Joey spun around, eyes wide. "Oh, it's just you." "Who are you talking to?" JC asked, ignoring the comment. "Who do you think?" Joey muttered, then he shuddered. "You little punk, what are you tryin' to do? You gotta stop takin' things so personally," he said. "Lance is in here?" JC asked quietly. Joey fell silent, suddenly remembering exactly why JC was so interested in Lance. "Uh, yeah...Look, I'm sorry--" He looked down at the sudden message. "YOU REMEMBERED AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" "Um, whoops?" Joey said. "What?" JC asked. Joey held up the piece of paper. "Dude, it's blank," JC said. Joey looked at it. "Oh," he said intelligently. "Well, he's yelling at me for not telling him that I remembered him." JC chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Oh, well, I guess I'll let you two...talk..." "No, Jace...what did you come in here for?" Joey asked, desperate to keep his friend in the room. "I don't remember," JC said truthfully, hand resting against the door frame. He shrugged. "Wasn't...it wasn't important anyway." He turned around and left the room with a sigh. Joey squeezed his eyes shut. "Stupid, Fatone. You're such an idiot!" Suddenly he saw Lance standing in front of him. "I'm gonna go and--" "Go, go, go," Joey said, shaking his head, not really noticing the oddity of having the angel just pop up in front of him. "I'll be okay for a couple minutes." He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well..." Lance looked towards the door. "Maybe I can do something..." He ran in the direction JC went, and Joey was surprised to hear his footsteps lightly plodding down the hallway. * Lance saw JC sitting in bed, clutching a pillow and looking out the window. He saw the tears that threatened to fall and hated that he was the cause of them. He sat down and slowly started rubbing JC's back. JC suddenly turned around, blue eyes wide. He shook his head and continued to look out the window when he felt something on his back again. He looked around the room a little fearfully. Lance's eyes were wide. Could JC feel him? Then he remembered -- he'd gone into the form where Joey could see him; last time he'd done that, JC could feel him. He decided to just go with it, deciding some contact was better than none. JC turned around one more time. "Lance?" he asked quietly. He felt pressure on his shoulder and his eyes widened even more. "Lance?" he asked again. "Is that you? Do it um...twice if it is," he added quickly. He felt it twice and gasped. "Oh, Lance...I've missed you so much..." He clutched the pillow in his hands closer to his body. "I can't...I..." He felt the warmth surround him and he closed his eyes with a sigh. "I know you can hear me, I know you're here," he laughed a little with a sniffle. "And now I can't think of a single thing I want to say to you." He felt what he assumed to be arms wrap around tighter. For the sake of conversation, he started talking. "You know, I wonder if I can get the other two to remember you like Joey does. I think Joey remembered cause he sort of...knows you better, ya think?" He felt a squeeze on his shoulder so he continued. "This is really weird. Anyway, I don't even know why I want them to remember you. I mean there's SOMETHING in my mind that's telling me I have to...and I had this dream that I was with you...in heaven, I guess, for a little while, but I don't remember much. Except talking to God. Weird, isn't it? ME, talk to GOD. Maybe I am crazy. That might be the reason I want to tell them; just so they don't think I'm crazy. Because I KNOW you were here, and that you're here now, I can't make that stuff up..." * "I never knew you could look so sexy," Justin droned out in a monotone. "Wow the girls will scream for you." "Shut up, Mufasa," Chris said. "I never asked for your opinion." He pulled on his shirt. "Not that I WANT it." Joey walked through the room and tossed chocolate chip cookies at the two of them. "Both of you shut up," he said. They eagerly devoured them. "Rank rou Roey," Justin said, his mouth full. "That's disgusting," Joey commented, walking up the stairs. "YOU LOVE IT!" Joey rolled his eyes and continued, stopping when he heard talking. He poked his head in a room and saw Lance holding JC, who was rambling about something like Justin believing him before Chris would and looking rather tired. JC was leaning into the embrace, and Joey knew that somehow, he felt Lance behind him. Both were looking out the window, and Joey smiled slightly and continued down the hallway, looking around for the extra controller for the Playstation. "Idiot...what the hell is it doing in the bathroom?" he asked with a sigh, then picked it up and started going back downstairs. He looked into JC's room, and saw that the two had changed positions. JC was laying down on the bed, and Lance was running his fingers through JC's hair. JC was most definitely asleep, Joey noticed, yet Lance was talking quietly to someone he couldn't see, and was lying down next to JC, propped up on his elbow. Joey shook his head with a smile, and went back downstairs. * "So what?" Joey asked. "The peanut butter ones are SO much better." "No way!" Chris argued. "Cheese all the way. Peanut butter is too much like a sandwich." "So is cheese," Joey countered. Chris made a face. "That's disgusting. Cheese sandwich? Gross." "It's true!" Joey said. "You take a piece of cheese, put it on some bread, then plop another piece down. Voila, cheese sandwich." "The only way I'll eat a cheese sandwich is if it's grilled cheese," Chris said, shaking his head. "Yet you'll eat THOSE?" Joey pointed at the food in Chris' hand with disdain. "What in the world are you two talkin' about?" Justin asked. "JOEY here seems to think that the mini Ritz with peanut butter in the middle are better," Chris began. "But, we ALL know that the crackers with cheese in the middle are undeniably the better snack food," he finished matter-of-factly. "So, what do YOU think?" Justin looked at them oddly. "You've been talking about that for a half an hour? Guys, you need a life." "Can I have yours?" Chris asked, abandoning his mini-crackers. He jumped up. "Pretty please? I want eleven year olds in baby blue tube tops throwing themselves at me everyday!" He dove down and attached himself to Justin's leg. "Please? They'll love me SO much better anyway, cause I'm sexy. You ain't. Pretty please with a cherry on top? Come on, I want the eleven year olds!" He clawed at Justin's jeans. Justin shook his leg. "Man, get your arms off me! JC!" he complained seeing his friend walk into the room with a soda in his hand. JC raised an eyebrow at what he was seeing. "I'm not so sure I wanna know," he said. "No, help me get him off," Justin pleaded. "Dude, get OFF me!" He balanced on one leg and kicked Chris with his free one. "Dammit, let go!" JC kicked at Chris. "I think he's stuck," he commented. "Wonder how we'll explain THAT one to PR." He suddenly thought of something. "Hey, J, I need to talk to you," he said. "So Chris, ya gotta get your ugly butt off him." "Why does everyone think I'm so ugly?" Chris complained. "I ain't ugly. I'm pretty." He untangled himself from Justin's leg and stood up, going back to his chair. "And the cheese ones are SO much better." * "What'd ya need, C?" Justin asked, coming into JC's room and opening the soda. JC picked at the tab of his own nervously. "Well, um," he stopped when he heard the annoying plunking noises his finger was making with the tab, so he put the soda down on the desk and sat on the bed. He didn't know where to start. Joey had been so much easier. "Well, there's the--ugh. Okay, you remember my dreams and Joey's angel, right?" "Of course I do," Justin said, looking at him a little oddly. "Why wouldn't I?" JC raked a hand through his hair and continued. "And you know how in all my dreams, Ken is replaced by La--" he stopped and groaned in frustration, practically pulling his hair out. "Okay, let me start again," he said, searching his memory for something -- ANYTHING -- that might make Justin remember. Somehow, he didn't think telling a million different things he'd done would help...Then he remembered that Justin, for whatever reason, had loved the little inter-band "Civil Wars" they'd had. "Hey," he said, "Do you remember, how, in the Civil War, there was the North and like, Lincoln against the South and that Confederate President dude? What's his name, Davis? Yeah...and...and...Union against Confederacy?" "Duh." That was a pointless string of questions if Justin had ever heard one from JC. Of COURSE Justin had heard of the Civil War. How could he have passed high school if he didn't? Forget that, how would he be a halfway normal citizen if he didn't know that there had been a Civil War? Justin sighed inwardly. JC was really losing it. "Work with me here. Anyway, there was...okay, what would you think if we had one of our own?" JC asked. Justin looked worried. "Jace, are you like, mad at the other guys? Is that what this is about? Are you like--" "No, no no," JC said. This wasn't how he'd planned it at all. "What I mean is, you know, like...fake. Like, you're from the South, and--" "Oh, I get it," Justin said with a short nod. "But that wouldn't be fair; I'd get my ass kicked. I mean, you never fool around, well, not anymore, and like, I'm the only southerner...Joey's from New York, Chris is from Pennsylvania, and Ken's from Maine, you know that. So..." THIS was what JC wanted Justin to say. "Okay," he said quickly. "What if I told you that there WAS another person from the South in the band?" This sounded bad, but he decided to go with it anyway. "C, what are you getting at?" "Lance." "Lance, the guy from your dream or Lance the guardian angel?" "They're the same person!" JC said. "They're the same. Joey's angel was part of the band in the dreams...and he's from Mississippi...and he'd--" "JC, I still don't know what you're trying to say." JC pulled his hair in frustration. "I'll just say it. LANCE would be on your side, instead of Ken being on Chris and Joey's side. Lance WAS on your side, when he was still here. It was one of the times he'd actually wrestle; I'd always beg off, remember? You HAVE to remember." "JC, how can I remember something that never happened?" Justin was worried. JC was really sounding crazy. This wasn't working and JC just blew up. "I'm NOT crazy and I'm NOT making it up! He REALLY was here, I swear, he was here for five years! FIVE YEARS he was here!" He calmed down a little. "J, Lance would be on your side when we had our Civil Wars. He'd fight Chris and Joey with you, you guys would always trash talk each other...He'd be on your side, instead of Ken being on Chris and Joey's side, he'd be here singing the bass parts instead of Ken, just like he'd be here for me to love with all my heart instead of Ken being here for me to HATE with all my soul."