Lance was on his Palm Pilot, checking email and going over his schedule for the next few days. He used it as much as his cell phone, and he wasn't sure how he'd ever done without it. The days when he was just a kid keeping track of their schedule with a pocket calendar and a printed copy of the cities and appearances they had to go to were long gone. Now that he had even more going on with all his side projects it was extremely important he stay on top of everything and keep himself organized.

"Hey, Hollywood," Chris called, his voice demanding Lance's attention. He glanced up from the small screen to his oldest friend and Chris continued, "You want to put the fancy gadget away? You're missing out on some important catching up time here."

Lance rolled his eyes, but he did pocket the small device. He and Joey had flown back to Orlando together and had gone straight to the compound, having arrived late enough that it hadn't made sense to go to their homes first. Because of that, they had been the first ones to arrive and were relaxing in the lounge when Chris had come in. That'd been nearly fifteen minutes ago, and Joey and Chris had been talking nearly the entire time, each of them swapping stories as none of them had really had much time to talk over their break.

"I was listening," he told Chris. "You were talking about how John screwed up the order of belts and made a mess of the design room."

Chris glanced at Joey and smirked. "Oh yeah, you were listening," he said, sarcastically.

"What? I was."

Joey shook his head. "The guy's name was Jeff, and he didn't mess up the design room. He tried baking cookies in the break room, didn't know what he was doing, and got batter and flour everywhere."

"Oh." Lance frowned then as what Joey said sunk in. "Who the hell would try making cookies in an office break room?"

Joey and Chris burst out laughing, and Lance felt like he was missing something, like one of them had already said something similar. Okay, so maybe he hadn't been listening as well as he'd thought.

The laughter was dying off as they heard the front door open and then Justin appeared a couple seconds later. They all greeted him and he smiled back at them as he threw himself onto the opposite end of the couch Lance was sitting on. Almost immediately the mood dimmed a bit as they realized something was up. He may have smiled at them when he'd first walked in, but it had been a bit strained and it was obvious just by looking at him that he looked completely exhausted.

"Geez, J. You look like something the cat dragged in," Joey said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. I'm just tired," Justin replied, his voice near monotone as he slouched against the cushy couch cushions.

Chris gave him a look. "Bull. It's obviously more than that."

Justin's eyes flashed in annoyance and a bit of anger as he looked at Chris. "Yeah, and how would you know? Not like any of you have been around lately."

Lance blinked, feeling stunned at that seemingly random accusation. Yeah, they had all gone off in separate directions when they'd agreed to the break, but it didn't mean that they were too busy for one another. Though, Justin clearly didn't see it that way.

Chris, for his part, didn't seem surprised by what Justin said at all. He just met his gaze head on. "I know something's up because I know you. So why don't you just tell us what's going on."

Justin stared at Chris for a long moment, his jaw set and Lance was beginning to think he would refuse to tell them anything. But finally, Justin sighed and looked away as he mumbled, "Vicki and I broke up."

The three of them exchanged glances and quickly offered up their condolences, apologizing for what'd happened. Justin just shrugged them off with a look that clearly said "whatever".

"Who broke up with who?" Joey asked.

Justin slowly raised tired blue eyes to look at him. "Does it matter? We broke up, and I'd really rather not talk about it."

"So you went to Vegas to deal?" Lance asked. He made sure his tone wasn't combative and more casual like it didn't really matter. The last thing he wanted was to piss Justin off more than he seemed to be and make him lash out.

Justin's head snapped up and he looked at Lance with an expression of total surprise. "How do you know I was in Vegas?"

Chris looked at him too, seeming just as clueless as Justin. Lance sighed and said, "There were pictures of you and Trace partying." He paused. "Johnny isn't too happy."

Justin shook his head as he settled back against the couch once more. "Figures," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

Before anything else could be said, they were interrupted by the front door opening again. Out of habit, Lance glanced down at his watch to note how late JC was as he knew that had to be him - he was always the last to arrive for these meetings. He lowered his wrist and looked up as JC walked in the room, instantly feeling like someone had kicked him in the gut. His eyes were transfixed on the little girl that was tucked against JC's side with his right arm wrapped securely around her small waist. He was more than a little confused, and he wasn't the only one.

"What the hell, JC?" Chris demanded.

At the same time, Joey asked, "Who's the kid?"

JC rolled his eyes as he moved to the open couch across from Lance and Justin. "Don't worry. She's not mine."

Lance felt a bit of relief wash over him even though he'd been pretty certain she hadn't been his. He had a feeling JC wouldn't have breezed through the door looking relatively calm if she was. Though, someone could mistake her for being his daughter if they didn't look too hard. They had same shade of dark brown hair, but that was about where their similarities ended.

"Then whose?" Lance asked.

"A friend's. I'm watching her for a couple days," JC said distractedly as he tried to pry the little girl away from his side to sit on the couch. She refused to let go of his neck though, clinging to him tightly. He sighed and gave up, sitting on the couch with her still attached to him. Rubbing her back gently, he whispered to her, "Alice, honey, it's okay."

Lance raised an eyebrow. It was obvious that JC cared for her and seemed comfortable with her - and her him as she refused to let go of him. Though it made sense because he couldn't imagine anyone giving someone their kid to watch if they weren't good friends and he'd been around her before. Still, they all knew about the same people and he could think of no one they knew that had a child.

"What friend?" Chris asked, clearly thinking along the same lines as Lance.

Justin cut in then before JC could even offer an answer, speaking for the first time since JC had come in. "Leave him alone," he said. "Just because you don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. If he wants you to know more, he'll tell you. He doesn't need you interrogating him."

Chris opened his mouth, most likely to object, but he was prevented from Johnny walking in as he'd been in his nearby office and had probably heard that they'd finally all arrived. But he stopped in surprise when he saw the little girl that was sitting in JC's lap. He frowned as his eyes immediately went to JC.

"I'm watching her for a friend for a couple days," JC said before Johnny could say anything.

Johnny's frown seemed to deepen. "You guys are meeting with one of the producers for the album the day after tomorrow."

JC nodded. "I know. Her mother might pick her up by then. And if not, I'll just take her with me."

"JC..." Johnny began, and Lance could imagine what he was going to say. He knew Johnny's biggest concern was the media and what would happen if people saw JC with this little girl. It didn't matter if she wasn't his because surely the media wouldn't stop to consider that and would just print that she was his daughter because it would be hot gossip.

"I'm helping a friend out of a bind," JC said, interrupting him. His voice was firm and told them all that he would do whatever he thought was necessary until his friend could pick up her daughter.

Johnny sighed, but didn't say anything else about it. Instead he said, "Let's get started then."

The meeting started with them addressing the picture that'd been taken of Justin in Vegas. It actually hadn't been all that incriminating of a picture considering the drink Justin was holding had been a dark color and hard to know what it was. For all the paparazzi knew it could've been Coke, and it wasn't uncommon for people under twenty-one to get into the nightclubs in Vegas as they usually got their hand stamped at the door signaling to the bartenders they weren't able to drink. Still, Johnny had lectured Justin about being more careful in the future. He had no disillusions that he could keep Justin from clubbing and partying, he just asked that he be more cognizant of the potential for reporters lurking nearby when he was out. Justin agreed and that'd been the end of it.

For the rest of the meeting, they went over their schedule for the next couple of weeks. The hope had been to come back with all of their side projects settled, but there were still a few things that needed to be taken care of with the biggest thing being the movie. Lance had never intended on doing a movie in the middle of recording an album, but the opportunity had come up and it'd been too good to ignore as it would be the push he needed to get A Happy Place off the ground. So bearing that in mind, they would have to record in shifts to accommodate him and Joey flying back for the movie. They would actually be flying back this week - the same time Chris was heading to New York to handle some things for his clothing line.

The meeting was winding down when JC's attention was diverted by a small voice and a hand tugging at his shirt. "I need to go potty," the little girl said quietly.

A brief look of discomfort appeared on JC's face before he nodded and rose with the little girl since she'd refused to let go of him even as the meeting had progressed. Lance watched him go for a moment before he turned his attention back to Johnny, waiting to see if there was anything else he wanted to add. It turned out there wasn't and when JC returned with the girl now walking, holding his hand, the meeting was declared finished. Johnny told them all to go relax and rest up before making his exit.

"So did I miss anything?" JC asked as he reclaimed his earlier seat and this time the little girl actually sat next to him. Though she was practically pressed up against his side.

"Nah," Justin said. "He just did his usual summary for those that weren't paying attention."

"Like you?" Lance replied, giving Justin a knowing look. More often than not he was caught not paying attention in the meetings Johnny held. Hell, they all were...except for Lance. He couldn't afford to otherwise none of them would know what Johnny had booked them for.

There was a bit of quiet laughter and when it died down Joey said, "So are you going to introduce us or what?"

JC sighed and rolled his eyes, but his lips upturned into a small smile. He looked down at Alice before looking back out at them and began pointing to each of them as he said their name. They all smiled or gave a little wave as they were introduced, and JC finished by saying, "And guys this is Alice."

Chris slid out of the chair he was sitting in and crouched down in front of her, putting his hand out. She hesitated a moment, glancing up a JC who smiled at her and nodded. Reassured, she put her much smaller hand into Chris's and he shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Alice."

She giggled and looked once more at JC. "That's what JC calls me."

Chris let go of her hand and grinned up at JC, who ducked his head and coughed into his hand. "Is that so?"

"So do we know this friend?" Joey asked. He shifted in his seat, glancing at Justin as he added, "I'm not trying to pry. I'm just curious."

"You know her," JC told him. Joey frowned, his forehead wrinkling in confusion as he likely tried to recall everyone he and JC knew that had a kid. But JC cleared it up a second later as he added, "Beth."

"Beth," Joey repeated like he was trying to place the name. His face smoothed out as it seemed to suddenly don on him. "Beth Carlson? The girl we went to high school with?"

JC nodded. "We've stayed in touch over the years and she called me earlier asking if I could meet her. She needed to take care of something and asked if I could watch Alice."

Lance suspected there was much more to the story, but the way JC glanced at the little girl told him he didn't want to say anything in front of her. He could understand that and honestly the explanation could wait...even if they were all beyond curious to know more about the situation and why Beth had chosen JC to watch Alice given their lifestyle. So he quickly changed the subject before anyone could press the subject any further.

"I guess we're going to have to pick somewhere different for dinner to accommodate our guest," he said, offering a smile to Alice. She returned it tentatively.

JC frowned. "What are you talking about? I was just going to take her to my place-"

"And what? You have no food in your house, C," Justin spoke up.

"That's not true."

"Leftover Chinese food doesn't count."

JC made a disgruntled noise and Justin grinned, finally seeming to lift out of the mood he'd been in since he'd first arrived at the compound. The lack of argument on JC's part told them Justin was right on the money, and they all had to laugh at how some things never changed.

"Like you can even cook for the kid even if you had food," Chris said as he got to his feet. He tilted his head as he regarded JC for a second before he added playfully, "What was she thinking having you babysit? You have no experience with kids."

JC looked at him and said dryly, "I don't know. I've taken care of you for the past few years."

"It doesn't even matter what you want." Joey moved so he was crouched down in front of Alice and asked her, "What do you want for dinner?"

They all turned their attention to the little girl, and she shifted under their gazes. After a long pause, she said a bit hesitantly, "Chuck E Cheese?"

Joey gave a nod, smiling at her. "Sounds good to me."

Chris turned to Justin. "You know what this means?" he asked.

"Arcade games," Justin replied, grinning as he high fived Chris.

"Hang on, guys," JC said, frowning. "I don't know if this is such a good idea."

Lance looked at him. "Why not?" It wasn't like he really wanted to go to a kid's place to eat as it didn't sound nearly as appetizing as the restaurant they were going to eat at, but that same restaurant would just be torture for someone Alice's age.

"Because we'll probably draw a lot of attention to us, and I doubt Beth intended for Alice to end up in the media by staying with me."

Justin waved a dismissive hand. "Please. Like anyone is going to be looking for us at Chuck E Cheese." He added, "Besides, she really wants to go or she wouldn't have suggested it."

As if on cue, Alice looked up at JC with her big green eyes and said, "Please, JC."

Lance could feel the affect that little gaze had and she wasn't even looking at him. So he wasn't at all surprised when JC caved a couple seconds later with a sigh. "Okay, we can go." He glanced at them. "But you guys don't have to-"

"Are you kidding? We're not gonna miss this," Chris said.

JC frowned again. "You make it seem like I'm terrible with kids."

Chris shook his head. "It's not that. I just don't think you know what you're in for. Right, Alice?" he said, winking at her. The little girl giggled.

JC resigned himself to the fact they would be tagging along and the five of them all went out to their separate cars to drive themselves. It was true they could've just gone out to dinner without JC, but this was the first night the five of them were together in weeks and it wouldn't feel right to go out with someone missing. Besides, Lance had to admit he was curious how this babysitting gig would work out for JC. Not because JC wasn't good with kids, but because like Chris said, there were always unexpected surprises when kids were involved.

**************

Joey shook his head at Justin and Chris's playful arguing as they tried to outdo each other at one of the numerous arcade games. There weren't a ton of kids in Chuck E Cheese considering it was a Monday night, but there was enough that he hoped they kept their trash talk clean. He left them to their competition and returned to the table they'd eaten their meal at where JC and Lance were sitting.

As he approached, he heard Lance ask JC, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," JC said, his annoyance coming through loud and clear. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

Joey exchanged a look with Lance as he pulled out a chair, taking a seat across from JC. He looked across the table at him and said, "Because you've been on edge ever since you got to the compound."

JC opened his mouth, but Lance quickly cut in, seeming to know exactly what he was going to say. "Yes, it was partly because you didn't want to answer a million questions about Alice. But your mood didn't exactly get better, especially when we were discussing our schedule."

JC said nothing. He didn't even try to deny it like Joey thought he might have. It was like he was silently admitting that yes he was in a bad mood and that he wasn't happy about how their schedule was laid out for the next couple weeks. For having returned from a three week break that was meant to allow them to get their side projects settled enough where they could begin recording the album without many interruptions, there were a number of days where one or more of them wouldn't be able to be in the studio. And Joey knew without a doubt that it bothered JC.

"Are you mad at us for doing this movie?" Joey asked.

"No," JC denied immediately. Joey frowned while Lance raised an eyebrow in disbelief. JC sighed. "Could it have been at a better time? Absolutely. But there's nothing we can do to change that now so we just have to make the best of it."

Lance leaned in slightly from where he was sitting next to Joey. "Are you sure? I don't want you to say you're okay with it because you're trying to smooth things over."

"I'm not." JC looked down as he rubbed at his forehead. After a moment, he dropped his hand and lifted his head. "I'm sorry I've been in such a bad mood. I'm just..."

"Just what?" Joey asked when JC stopped speaking, watching JC expectantly.

There was a long pause before JC finally admitted, "I'm worried about Beth."

As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on something behind them. Joey turned in his seat and saw that JC was watching Alice play with a couple of kids that looked to be a little older than her. They were in front of the small stage where Chuck E Cheese and his creepy animatronic mouse friends performed a couple of songs. She seemed happy enough, but as he looked back at JC, he could see the worry lines marring his friend's face.

"Why? What's going on?"

Lance's question had JC shaking his head, his eyes never leaving Alice. "She wouldn't really tell me. All she said was she had to take care of some things with her ex."

"Do you think he was abusive?" Joey asked. He wasn't really sure why his mind immediately went there, but he reasoned it was because those things tended to happen and it was one of the more common reasons you heard when someone was asked why they left their boyfriend.

"I don't know. I don't think so." JC frowned then like that thought hadn't entered his mind before, but he was thinking about it now. "I hope not."

"Did you know him?" Lance asked.

JC finally tore his gaze away from the area where Alice was to look at them. "No. She never talked about him much, and he certainly wasn't around when we got together."

"How often was that?" JC shot Joey a look that told him it was none of his business, and Joey held up his hands in defense. "I'm not trying to pry. I'm just curious. I wasn't aware you kept up with people we went to high school with."

"I didn't," JC said. "It was just her."

Joey felt himself smile as he remembered something. "She was the girl you had a crush on, right?"

"It wasn't a crush," JC denied. "We were just friends."

Right, Joey thought to himself as he smirked. There had always been some indescribable vibe between JC and Beth. She loved hanging out with him and vice versa. Joey had tried to convince him to just ask her out a few times, but he'd refuse every time. He still wasn't sure why because all JC would say was that what she really needed was a friend, not a boyfriend. But Joey had tried to friend her as she was hanging out with JC all the time anyway and she hadn't seemed interested. Now that she had broken up with her boyfriend maybe she and JC could finally hook up.

"Well, you must have kept in touch a good bit over the years for her to trust you with Alice," Lance said, cutting through Joey's thoughts.

JC gave a one shoulder shrug. "We didn't really. Not as much as we wanted to anyway. But I got the feeling she didn't exactly have many other people to ask."

"What about her family?"

"As far as I know she hasn't talked to her parents since they kicked her out of the house the first time she got pregnant," JC said.

Joey's eyes widened in surprise as he felt instant sympathy for her. The look on Lance's face showed he shared in those feelings. He'd only met her parents a couple times - one of them being graduation - but they'd never struck him as the kind of people that would force their own child out of the house. His mind seemed to come up with endless questions, ones that he wanted answers to and would've tried to get if Alice hadn't come running over to them then.

"JC!" she cried excitedly. Joey smiled as he watched her run up to JC, her long brown hair bouncing lightly. He must have caught her attention because as she slowed to avoid crashing into JC, she eyed him and Lance warily. It only lasted for a moment though because then she quickly turned her attention back on JC, putting a small hand on his arm. "C'mon, JC. You gotta see!"

JC smiled as he looked down at her. "See what?"

"The tunnels," she said and pointed over her shoulder as if he didn't know what she was talking about. The play set was pretty small, but it had several plastic tunnels that ran near the ceiling with a couple that led to slides which were situated in the middle.

"I see them. They look pretty cool." JC turned in his chair slightly so he could lean forward to look her in the eyes. "You gonna go play in them?"

Alice nodded. "With you," she said as she grabbed hold of his hand.

Joey couldn't hold back his laughter anymore and even Lance was chuckling. He couldn't picture JC crawling around in small plastic tunnels that were made for kids under twelve. It wasn't that JC couldn't because his thin frame could easily fit through those tunnels, but because he didn't act nearly childish enough to do such a thing. Chris on the other hand...he wouldn't care about making a fool of himself and playing with kids because he often acted like one big kid himself.

"Alice, honey, I can't," JC began, his voice taking on a sweet tone as he tried to break it to her gently. "I'd break it."

"C'mon, Jace. We all know it would take a lot more than your scrawny butt to bring those things down," Joey said, managing to censor himself from saying ass in front of the impressionable five year old.

JC glared at him as he knew that Joey was well aware of the fact that it wasn't his fear of breaking the play set that had him refusing the little girl's request. But Alice turned and grinned at Joey, like she knew exactly what he was doing. She then looked back at JC and stared up at him with those same doe-like eyes that she'd used on him back at Johnny's. He was a sucker for it then, and Joey knew without a doubt he'd fall for it again.

Alice seemed to sense it too because she yanked on his hand as she said, "Let's go!"

JC didn't put up a fight as he allowed her to pull him to his feet. As they started to walk away from the table, Lance told him with a teasing smile, "Have fun."

Another glare was thrown in their direction, but it didn't keep them from laughing as JC was led into the kid's play area. Joey shook his head as he watched Alice instruct him to take off his shoes. "The kid's good," he said. "She knew exactly what she was doing, and she's only five. Pretty impressive."

"She's smart," Lance agreed. "And it's going to make for an interesting couple of days for JC."

"For all of us," Joey amended. Lance gave him a confused look and Joey clarified, "You think I'm not gonna pop in to see how they're doing? I fully expect his house to be in shambles by tomorrow night, or at least someone screaming. Whether it's JC or her is up for debate."

Lance laughed. "There's one thing he'll be sure of once this whole thing's over."

"What's that?"

"He'll either want kids or he won't."

Joey nodded in agreement, laughter rising to the surface once more. He couldn't remember ever talking to JC about the subject before; he'd probably always assumed that JC would want kids considering his care giving nature. But like Lance said, they would all definitely know for sure once Beth returned to pick up Alice.

**************

JC sighed in contentment as he slipped into bed and fell against his plush mattress and fluffy pillows, feeling much more exhausted than he should've been. He'd slept in pretty late, which had been understandable given how late he'd gone to bed the night before. Under normal circumstances, he would still be wide awake, especially given that it was only midnight and he'd only been up for about twelve hours. But normal circumstances went out the window the moment he'd agreed to watch Alice for a couple days.

He couldn't believe how exhausted he was given that he hadn't done much all day, even once Alice was with him. The most taxing thing they'd done was going to Chuck E Cheese and playing the arcade games and running around in those tunnels. Well, Alice had run. JC had crawled and he was paying for it dearly now, his knees and hands rough and hurting. Not to mention he had numerous new bruises in various places that he hadn't been sporting yesterday.

They'd only stopped playing when Alice had been enticed by Chris and Justin to come with them to pick out a prize with all the tickets they'd won. The amount of tickets they'd won had allowed for Alice to pick out a blue bunny stuffed animal and she'd had enough left over for some candy. She'd redeemed it for three Ring Pops, two of which she'd promptly given to her two new friends that'd helped her get that many tickets. Chris and Justin had played it up, acting like it was a big deal as they'd immediately unwrapped the candy and put the rings on their fingers - pinky fingers since the others were too big for the small plastic rings.

Afterwards, JC had loaded Alice up in his car and had thanked the guys. He may not have initially wanted to go out, but he hadn't been able to deny that it'd been a good idea. Alice had had fun and it'd been largely due to his friends and their ability to act like a kid themselves. And it'd ultimately helped her go to sleep that much quicker.

She'd been asleep at least a few hours now. He'd set her up in one of the guest rooms down the hall after he'd given her a bath, which he'd expected some resistance from her on. But she'd seemed more comfortable with the idea of him bathing her than he had. He'd even contemplated not giving her a bath, but he knew that if he hadn't bothered to bathe her in a couple days that Beth would get on his case. Really, Alice hadn't needed his help as she'd done a pretty good job washing up. By the time they'd finished, her eyes had been half open and it'd been all too easy to put her to sleep.

JC had spent the last few hours going through his house and making sure there wasn't anything that she could get into that might result in her hurting himself. His house wasn't exactly childproof and he didn't have all the right stuff to make it so, but he made do. It'd taken him much longer than he'd thought though so he was happy to finally be able to relax a little before he headed to bed himself.

He spent the next hour or so in bed, watching TV. There wasn't anything good on though and he eventually felt the pull of sleep. Just when he'd nearly given into it, there was a scream of terror. It made him jump awake and the blood in his veins seemed to turn to ice.

"Alice," he said to himself, already up and moving towards the hallway. Rationally he knew nothing terrible could have happened - he'd been awake and moving through the house most of the night so he would've noticed if someone had broken in. Still, that didn't keep his heart from racing frantically.

He ran into the guest room where she was and flipped the light switch as he rushed in. The sudden brightness of the overhead light contrasted greatly from the cloaking dark of the hall and he had to blink a few times to get his vision to focus. When it did, he noticed that the five year old looked even smaller than she had before as she sat in the middle of the queen sized bed, shaking and looking absolutely frightened. He made it to her in a couple of quick steps and sat on the bed next to her before wrapping her up in his arms.

"Shh, it's okay. You're alright," he said quietly, hoping he was saying the right things to soothe her. He began to rub her back, thinking that might help too. "Did you have a nightmare?"

JC felt her nod against his chest, and he held her tighter as she continued to shake. She tilted her head to look up at him with watery green eyes and said in a broken voice, "I want my mommy."

He could've sworn he felt his heart break into a million little pieces at her confession. "Honey, your mommy's not here," he told her gently. "You're staying with me for a couple of days, remember?"

Alice sniffled and nodded once again. As he looked down at her, he wished he could take away her pain or make this easier somehow. Something. But the only thing she wanted was the one thing he couldn't give her. Beth had told him to call if he needed anything, but he didn't want to call her about this and have her come back because she was worried. He had a feeling whatever she was doing was important and that she needed to take care of it now when she didn't have to worry about how Alice would handle whatever she was doing.

"I miss her," Alice said quietly as she disentangled herself from him. There were still a few tears running down her cheeks, but the shaking had stopped and she did seem much calmer.

"Me too," JC replied. He realized this wasn't exactly making her feel any better so he was quick to try to reassure her. "But she'll be here soon. If everything goes well, she might even be back tomorrow night."

Alice was silent for a long moment, and JC wondered if he was successful at all in allaying her fears. It didn't really feel like it, but it was hard to tell. He could have, or he might have said the completely wrong thing and she was gearing up for round two.

Finally, she turned her green eyes on him and asked, "And you're not going to let the obsessed monster get me, right?"

JC frowned. Obsessed monster? He had no idea what she was talking about, but he figured it must have been what her nightmare was about. "Of course not," he said quickly. "You're safe here."

He watched her, trying to determine if she believed him or not. She still seemed scared, but he knew from experience it sometimes took a little while to shake off a nightmare. Plus he was sure it was hard to feel safe in a place you'd never been before, and he wondered if the strange environment had helped to bring about the bad dream.

JC was about to ask her if she wanted to try to go back to sleep when she asked, "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Immediately after the question left her lips, she got a nervous look on her face like she hadn't really meant to ask that and she was afraid of his answer. JC's mind couldn't help but wonder if there'd been some type of abuse, but he quickly dismissed it. She wasn't afraid of physical contact and surely that would be more of an indicator than hesitance around someone she'd only seen a few times a year. They really didn't know each other all that well, and he wasn't sure how much one-on-one interaction she had with other adults besides her mother. Then again, she'd done pretty well with the guys and she'd only just met them.

Regardless of what the reason was, JC offered her a smile and said, "Of course you can."

He stood up and she immediately latched herself to him, forcing him to pick her up so he could carry her to his room. As he walked down the hall, he found himself hoping that the rest of the night went smoothly and that Beth did show up tomorrow night because more than anything he wanted to spare Alice the pain of spending another night without her mom.