*present time*

"He's in v-tach." The nurse said turning away from the monitor that was beeping quickly.

"Charge to 360 and clear." The trauma surgeon said.

"Wait," another doctor said, stopping the paddles from coming. "We've got to find the bleeder."

"He's going to go in to dfib," the first trauma surgeon said, looking across the table.

"We have to find the bleeder," the surgeon said firmly; his gaze unwavering. When the doctor made no move, he looked back down at the patient. "I need more suction." A nurse suctioned the blood. "Where are you?" He whispered to himself.

"Another 750 out of the chest tube."

"How's it getting up there when he's bleeding here?"

"Pressure's dropping. 67 over 42." The nurse said. The cardiac monitor was still beeping rapidly.

"Damnit," the doctor said. "Put direct pressure right here."

"He's bleeding too quickly."

"We need more blood."

"We're way behind." The first surgeon watched the machines closely and the second doctor. They didn't have much time left to find the bleeder.

"I need more pressure!"

"Keep the pressure," the doctor ordered. "I need to tie..."

The cardiac monitor sent a continuous beep and the operating room was flourish with movement.

"He's in dvip."

"He's flatlining."

"Clear," the doctor said and removed his hands and instruments from the patient while the defibrillator charged. He grabbed the paddles from the nurse and rubbed them together.

"Clear," a nurse said and watched as the doctor put the paddles on the patient's chest. The machine beeped as it sent a jolt into the patient causing the body to arch on the table. The cardiac monitor still gave out a single tone. He was still flatlining.

"Lidocaine 100 on the bolus."

"Clear."

"Clear." The doctor placed the paddles back on the JC's chest sending a shock to his heart once more.

"No change," the nurse called watching the cardiac monitor.

"300."

"Charge."

"Clear." The paddles were placed back on JC's chest.

"No change."

"360."

"This isn't working."

"Charge" The doctor ordered. "Clear."

"Nothing."

"Come on," the doctor whispered. "Charge."

"Clear."

The doctor placed the paddles back on JC's chest and sent another shock. The room breathed a sigh of relief when the monitor started beeping.

"He's back."

*~*

Rachel's elbows rested on her knees. Her head was buried in her hands. The tears had subsided - for now. Lifting her head, she glanced at the clock on the wall. The hours were passing one by one and yet there was no word on JC's condition. Dropping her hands, she noticed her fingernails had blood in the cuticles and beneath the nails. She stared at them; a lump rising in her throat.

"Come on," Lance rested his hand on top of Rachel's. "Let's find the bathroom and wash your hands."

Rachel shook her head. "I can't leave."

"It will only take a couple minutes."

"I can't leave Lance. I need to be here."

"The bathroom is probably right around the-"

"I said no!" Rachel snapped. She pushed up from the chair and moved across the room. She stared out the window to the streets below. Cars were rushing by. The rush hour traffic was thinning out. People had already been home and now they were going out. They were off to celebrate birthdays, engagement, anniversaries, babies. They were off the celebrate Saturday night with friends and families.  This was all happening while her life was falling apart inside the concrete building.

She stared down at her hands tinged with JC's blood. The blood she had tried so frantically to keep in his body. Blood that no matter how much she tried, it kept pooling.  It would have taken the ambulance a long time to get to Cedars-Sinai, but it was the best level one trauma center or so it said on a plaque on the wall.

Rachel felt the vibration in the pocket of her jeans and she reached for her phone. She paled seeing Karen's number. Her eyes met Lance's across the room and he immediately stood up and moved toward her.

"What's wrong?" Lance asked.

"It's Karen." Her eyes welled with tears as she stared at her phone screen. "I didn't call her. Oh God, it must be all over the news now. She probably saw some blip on Facebook..."

"Calm down." Lance reached out and put his hands on either of Rachel's upper arms. The phone fell silent. "Call her and tell her."

"But I don't know anything."

"Call her and tell her what you do know. You know it's a lot more than anything that she might have read online."

"I don't know if I can..." Rachel whispered. The phone started vibrating in her hand again. Karen.

"I'll do it," Lance said, reaching for the phone.

"No, she needs to hear it from me." Rachel tapped the button on the phone to answer the call and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath to try to settle her tears before lifting the phone to her ear. "Karen?"

"Rachel!" Karen's voice was frantic and Rachel felt the tears fall down her cheeks. "What's going on? I just read..." her voice cracked. "They said JC was shot?"

"I'm so sorry Karen," Rachel's bottom lip quivered and she sniffled. "I should have called... I should have..."

"It's true? Oh God."

"Give me the phone." Lance didn't give Rachel the opportunity to fight him. He took the phone from her hand. "Karen, its Lance. We're sorry we didn't call. JC's still in surgery. We don't have any updates."

"What happened Lance? Do we need to come out?"

Lance remembered Matt's words. ‘It doesn't look good.' "JC was shot at his house."

"At his house? My God, was it a robbery? Rachel's okay?"

"No Ma'am, it was someone JC was working with. Rachel wasn't hurt." ‘Thanks to JC,' Lance thought. "He's still in surgery we haven't heard anything yet. I don't...I think you should make arrangements to get out here as soon as possible." At his words, Rachel laid her forehead on his shoulder. He wrapped his free arm around her and held her as she cried.

"I'll text Rachel with the flight information as soon as I have it." Karen's voice wobbled.

"They are on their way," Lance told Rachel after he hung up the phone. He wrapped both arms around her. "It's gonna be okay, Rachel. He's gonna pull through this."

"What's taking them so long?"

"I don't know," Lance said truthfully.

"This is my fault. If I hadn't been there. If I had just stayed upstairs instead of going to see what the yelling was about...none of this would have happened."

"You don't know that. You can't know that. This is not your fault. It's Addison's. She's the one who had the gun. She's the one who took it out and she's the one who decided to shoot at you."

"I wished it was me in there. I wish it was me who had been shot because then JC would be okay."

"And he'd be sitting in this waiting room an absolute mess waiting for word about you. Not to mention me."

"I should call Mom. Let her know," Rachel sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"I'll let her know."

"I need to do something Lance. This waiting is killing me."

"Go to the bathroom and wash up." Lance held her by the forearms again and ducked his head to meet her eyes. "Please? I promise if the doctor comes out, we will come and get you immediately."

When Rachel disappeared into the women's bathroom, Lance sat back down in the chair next to Michael with a sigh. It was his turn to bury his head in his hands with his elbows resting on his knees. He felt Michael wrap an arm around his shoulders and lean in to him.

"What can I do?" Michael asked softly.

"Nothing you can do." When Lance looked at his fiancée, his eyes were red rimmed. "It's up to JC and the doctors."

*~*

‘What's going on? JC was shot? What the fuck man!'

Lance looked down at his phone seeing the text message from Justin. The last thing he had been thinking about from the moment Matt had called him, was informing people what was going on. It was why Karen had found out from the Internet. It was why his Mom had to call and ask what was going on. The rest of his bandmates were no different. His phone hadn't stopped from the moment he had arrived at the hospital.

‘It's the middle of the night and my phone is blowing up like crazy. I have no idea what's going on.'

Lance thought he knew that Justin was in Europe, but he couldn't remember for sure. All he knew was that Justin was touring. He didn't know where. Nothing mattered to him right now. He was zoned in to Rachel and JC. Anything other than that his mind was blank.

‘JC was shot today at his house by a writer he was working with. No one else was hurt. She was arrested. He's still in surgery. There are no updates.'

‘Fuck man.' ‘Do I need to cancel and come to California?'

Lance was shocked by the message. He hadn't expected that out of Justin. ‘I don't know man. That's your call.'

‘What the fuck happened!'

Lance sighed at the message from Chris. He wished he had more information to give but he didn't. ‘I'm not entirely sure what happened. Rachel's not talking about it. I only got a little bit from Matthew Morrison.'

‘Rachel was there?'

‘Yes. She went by the house to grab her costume for the party tonight.'

‘She okay? How's she doing?' Joey text. ‘I'm in town. Where are you?'

‘Cedar-Sinai. Rachel wasn't hurt, but she had to watch JC get shot and try to stop the bleeding.'

‘Jesus Christ.'

‘What did Matt say happened?'

‘Addison, the woman JC is writing with, pulled a gun on JC, Jimmy, Matt, and Rachel. Matt said she was crazy for JC. Wanted to be with him, but JC wouldn't give her the time of day. Addison was gonna shoot Rachel, but JC pushed her out of the way. When she realized she shot JC, she tried to shoot Rachel again. Matt wrestled the gun away from her while Rachel and Jimmy tried to help JC.'

‘Jesus Christ.'

‘Yeah. Its bad guys. Really bad.'

‘I'm coming. I'll be on the first flight I can get.' Chris text.

*~*

The clock struck midnight and it was officially their birthday. Lance took Rachel's hand, giving it a squeeze.

"What's taking so long?" Rachel squeezed his hand in return and laid her head on his shoulder. It had been over six hours. Joey had showed up. Matt and Jimmy were still sitting in the waiting room. JC's manager had also showed up.

"I don't know." Lance said honestly. He tried to tell himself to be happy that it was taking this long. It meant that JC was still alive. It meant the doctors were doing everything they could to save him. It meant that JC was still fighting, still hanging on.

The door from the operating ward opened and a doctor stepped out. A mask hung down around his neck. A surgical cap still covered his hair. Rachel knew it was JC's doctor.

"JC Chasez?"

"That's us." Rachel immediately stood up and went to the doctor. Lance and Michael fell in behind her while everyone else gathered around. She found Lance and Michael's hands with hers and held tightly. Her heart was lodged in her throat and she found it harder to breath. She almost wished the doctor wasn't here. If he hadn't come out the door, Rachel could go on believing that JC was still alive. The waiting was over. She was going to find out the answer. If it wasn't what she wanted to hear... if JC was gone...

"JC's a fighter." The doctor saw a wave of relief pass through the people gathered before him. "The bullet went in to his chest and ricocheted before eventually landing in his abdomen. We had to remove JC's spleen and part of his small intestine. He's lost a lot of blood. He's critical, but the next 24 hours will tell."

"Can..." Rachel's voice broke and her bottom lip wobbled. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Hands squeezed both hers.  "Can I see him?"

The doctor stared at the blond, sympathy in his gaze. "The best thing for JC right now is rest. It's late. Go home. Get some sleep and come back in the morning."

"Oh..." The tears rolled down Rachel's face as the doctor bid them goodnight promising they would be notified of changes. She stared down the hallway long after the doctor disappeared from view. She was wrapped into a hug, but she couldn't move.

"Come on," Lance said softly, trying to nudge his sister to move. "We'll take you home and come back tomorrow."

Rachel eyes flew to her brother's. "Home? I-I can't g-go home." She frantically shook her head. In her mind, she was picturing the floor at the bottom of the stairs. The pool of JC's blood. The bloody towels...

"No no," Lance shook his head and squeezed Rachel's hand. "Coming home with me. To my house," he further explained. "You..." he was cut off when Rachel's phone rang. He waited, but Rachel made no move to get it. His eyes met Michael's and he pulled Rachel's phone from her back pocket. Karen's name was on the screen. "Hello?"

"Lance?"

"Yes, it's me."

"Roy and I just landed at LAX. Has there been any update?"

"We just spoke with the doctor." Lance relayed the information he knew to Karen and could hear the relief in her voice. "We are leaving now to head back to my place. We'll swing down there and pick you guys up. You can stay with Michael and me."

"You don't-"

"Not up for discussion." Lance cut off JC's mom. "It will take us about an hour to get there from here."

"That's too far at this time of night," Karen argued.

"Ma'am, we're not going to be sleeping any time soon." He said his goodbyes to Karen, promising to call her when they were close. "Come on Rachel."

"I didn't expect to leave him," Rachel whispered as she let Lance lead her through the hospital to the elevator.

"I know. But he needs the chance to heal. You need to rest."

"You really think I'm going to be able to sleep?"

"No, but you'll at least be able to rest at the house and not in an uncomfortable chair at the hospital. We'll be back first thing tomorrow."

"They know to call me?"

Lance nodded as they exited the hospital. The group could only nod in their goodbyes. Their minds were full of JC; their hearts heavy. "Yes. You filled out the paperwork."

"I-I don't remember." Rachel said confused as they walked down the sidewalk and into the parking garage where Lance had parked.

Lance figured as much. He had sat next to Rachel when they brought her the forms. He watched as she went through them all, filling out the information line by line without having to hesitate. He couldn't even fill out paperwork about himself without hesitating. They reached his vehicle and he dug the keys out of his pocket. Opening the back door, he helped Rachel inside before climbing in the driver's seat. Michael sat next to him. As he started the car, he blew out a deep breath and exchanged looks with Michael before pulling out of his space and heading to the airport.