JC looked out into the backyard that was visible through the sliding glass door from where he was sitting at the kitchen table. Alice was sitting across from him finishing up her dinner. He'd been eating with her too, but he'd given up on cleaning his plate several minutes ago as his thoughts began to drift. He chewed his bottom lip as he felt an overwhelming sense of worry. Beth had been the main cause of his worry the last couple of days, and that'd been bad enough but now what was going on with Justin just added to it. What made it even worse was that neither situation was something he could really fix. He wasn't used to sitting back and doing nothing when those closest to him were struggling with something.

"I'm done," Alice announced as she pushed her plate away.

Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked at her. She'd managed to eat most of the spaghetti he'd made and had hardly touched the small salad he'd also given her. Though, that didn't really surprise him much. He hadn't figured that Alice ate salad because kids weren't exactly willing to eat their vegetables that much, but he had no idea what kind of things Beth normally fed her. JC hadn't eaten all of his dinner either so he couldn't exactly say something to her without being a hypocrite.

JC picked up all of their dishes, stacking them carefully on top of each other and transferring them to the sink. He placed them in it without bothering to rinse them, turning around to face Alice. She remained where she was, like she was waiting for something. He was sure she wanted to ask him something and he remained silent, allowing her time to build up the courage to ask him.

"When's my mommy coming?"

Her quiet voice coupled with the sad, worried expression on her face was enough to tug at his heart. He wished he could give her a definite time and mean it because as comfortable as she seemed to be with him, there was no doubt she was missing her mother. And he couldn't bring himself to lie to her anymore - he was worried too and he had a feeling she could sense that much.

Still, the last thing he wanted was her to worry about it. She was only five and worrying about where her mother was and if she coming back for her was too much for someone so young. Because he didn't want to lie to her, the next best thing was to try to get her mind off it. At least for a little while anyway.

"Do you want to open some presents?" JC asked.

That got her attention. She looked up at him, a spark to her eyes that showed she was interested and a smile that tugged at her lips. "Presents?"

JC nodded. "I didn't get to see you at Christmas, remember?" He paused. "So you want to open them?"

"Yeah!" she cried enthusiastically.

JC crossed the short distance between them, reaching out and picking her up to set her on the floor so she wouldn't fall from trying to get down from the couple of phonebooks she was sitting on. He'd stacked a couple on the chair for her so she could be at the right height for the table. Once he placed her back on the floor, she looked up at him expectantly.

"C'mon, they're in the study," JC told her.

He led the way and her little feet scurried after him as she tried to keep up with his bigger stride. They entered the office and she stood in the middle of the room as he went over to the closet on the far side of the room. He picked up a few of the larger presents, leaving a small one sit on the shelf in the closet. When JC turned around and made his way over to Alice, she was already sitting on the floor, watching him with anxious eyes.

JC lowered himself to the floor, taking up a half-lotus position as he sat across from her. With a smile, he placed the gifts in front of her. She looked at him with a bit of hesitance, silently asking if she could start opening. He nodded, and that was all the encouragement she needed.

There were three presents and she opened the smallest one first. It was a cassette tape and her little face scrunched up in confusion. JC couldn't help but laugh a little before he quickly explained what it was.

"I made a tape of a bunch of songs for you," he told her. "They're all your favorite songs only they're sung by me."

All the confusion disappeared and a big, pleased smile broke out on her face. He couldn't help but grin back. It'd started off as a joke the last time he'd spent the weekend with her and Beth as they'd listened to a tape of kid oriented songs. Beth had confessed they were driving her crazy, but JC had been amused and found himself singing along to a couple with Alice. It'd been then that Beth had said she was convinced he could sing the phonebook and make it sound amazing and that he should record children's songs. At the time it'd been a joke, but as the holidays had rolled around and he'd been unsure what to get Alice, it'd popped into his head and he thought it was a gift both Alice and Beth could appreciate.

The thought made him sober, reminding him of his worry for Beth and the fact that he hadn't heard from her in days. He wished she were there watching her daughter open gifts and opening the one that he still had tucked away for her. It was hard to push those feelings away, but he did his best as he didn't want to alert Alice to his fears, especially since he'd suggested this as a way to get her mind off of things.

While he'd momentarily zoned out, Alice had opened the second present which was a coloring book with crayons. She smiled her appreciation though her eyes were fixed on the final gift that was the biggest out of all of them. He watched with a small smile as she tore through the paper and then opened the cardboard box. She let out an excited squee as she lifted the stuffed dog with floppy ears out of the box he'd been shoved into.

"I always wanted a doggy," she said, practically beaming at JC.

JC couldn't stop the chuckle from escaping his lips. "I know." Alice had all but begged Beth for a dog, but Beth had always refused for one reason or another. He'd seen this stuffed animal at the mall and knew it would be perfect for the little girl.

"Thank you, JC!" she cried as she jumped up and threw her small arms around his neck, squeezing tightly. JC returned the hug. When he released her, she picked up the dog she'd momentarily discarded and settled back onto his lap.

"Can we put the tape in?" she asked, her eyes on the small cassette that lay in arm's reach on the floor.

JC shook his head. "Nah. Why don't we save it for later, okay?"

"Sing for me now? Please." She looked up at him hopefully and it was a look that practically turned him to mush. But he didn't stand a chance at saying no when she added, "Just a preview."

JC laughed. "A preview, huh? I guess we can do that."

JC cleared his throat, his mind briefly scanning through the songs before deciding to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He started the song and nearly cringed at the husky quality of his voice, but he pressed on. His voice didn't quite hit the high note on "up" and he forced himself not to clear his throat as he continued. As he sang the last line, a voice joined in, harmonizing with his. He jumped, startled even though he knew who it was.

Alice clapped her hands once they were finished, looking very pleased with the impromptu performance. JC's eyes were on Justin and he could tell that while he looked less pissed than he was before and had just finished a kids song with him, he still looked serious and more than a little tense. Knowing that they needed to talk, JC looked down at Alice.

"Sweetie, you want to take your doggy and your coloring book and go pick a movie to watch in the living room? I'll be in in a minute."

She took the hint and did as he requested. Once she was gone, JC got to his feet and he was a bit surprised when Justin was the first one to speak. He was even more surprised by what he said.

"Are you getting sick?"

"What? Of course not," JC denied immediately even as he cleared his throat. Okay, so it felt a little scratchy and he'd been kind of sniffling, but that didn't mean he was sick. He couldn't get sick. There was enough to do what with running after Alice and worrying about Beth, not to mention the fact they were supposed to start recording their album in the next couple days. He didn't have time to be sick.

"You told me to listen and that's what I'm doing," Justin said. "And it sounds like you're getting sick."

JC scowled, figuring it was just like Justin to take something he'd snapped out of anger and desperation to be heard and throw it back at him. Though, he knew deep down it wasn't something Justin was doing out of spite, that he really did care. He felt pretty sure Justin didn't come down to fight with him. Hell, he hadn't even wanted to leave the room all day; it seemed unlikely he'd come down just for the sake of telling JC off.

"Do you need something?" JC asked. His tone wasn't rude, but genuine and sincere. He wasn't exactly sure what Justin's motivations were for coming downstairs. Maybe he was hungry after all.

"We need to talk."

"About what?" JC bent over to pick up the discarded, shredded wrapping paper and crumbled it in his hands. He had a feeling he knew what it was that Justin wanted to talk about, and if he was right, staying busy would hopefully help him get through it.

"About what you said upstairs."

JC nodded to himself. His feeling had been dead on. There were several small pieces of wrapping paper scattered about from when Alice had struggled to rip part of the paper that had been taped really well to the box. He glanced up distractedly even though he knew eye contact wasn't needed since Justin couldn't even see him. "What about it?"

There was silence, the only sound the one of paper crinkling as JC crumbled each addition piece into the pile that his right hand was wrapped around. After a few seconds Justin snapped, "Will you stop whatever the hell it is you're doing!"

JC immediately paused at the loud tone of voice and looked up at his friend. Justin was still standing just inside the room, his hands clenched at his sides and his jaw tense. He looked stiff, like he was too afraid to move, which JC was sure had to be the case. Knowing he couldn't avoid the conversation any longer - that Justin wouldn't let him - he took the scraps of paper in his hand and walked over to the trashcan, depositing them in it.

He turned towards Justin and wanted to put a hand on his arm to lead him over to the couch, to try to get some of the tension to leave Justin's body. But JC was afraid he would pull away from him and it would just make things worse. So he stayed where he was, a couple of feet from Justin, and asked, "What, Justin? What do you want from me?"

"I want you to explain it to me. I want you to tell me why you were jealous," Justin said, his voice much calmer than before.

"I already told you I was wrong, and I apologized. Can't we just forget about it and move on?"

Justin shook his head. "I need to know why you said what you did. Why my best friend wasn't supportive of what I want to do."

JC sighed heavily, turning away slightly. "You know that's not true. It's not like that at all, and you know it."

"Then what?"

JC let his thoughts take him back to that day a few weeks ago just before they'd gone their separate ways for the break. He'd had Justin over to his house so he could listen to a couple of songs that he was working on, that he'd been thinking about submitting for the new album. They'd eventually gotten onto the subject of what they wanted the album to sound like and that had been when Justin had said he wanted to work with Wade. Something in JC had snapped, and it'd taken him a week to figure out why.

"Things haven't been the same between us, have they?"

JC's question must have thrown Justin because he frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What?"

"C'mon, Justin, you know what I'm talking about," JC said. "We don't hang outside of work anymore."

"You're mad I'm spending time with my other friends?"

"Of course not. I'm happy that you have friends you feel you can rely on, and I know you had to spend time with Vicki when you were home since you guys were hardly together." JC paused, unsure how Justin would take the mention of his now ex-girlfriend. But Justin's face was impassive and JC continued on. "My point is that things are just different. You don't follow me around all the time, wanting to do everything I do."

"And that's a bad thing?" Justin challenged with a bit of attitude. He seemed insulted, like he thought JC wasn't supportive of the independence he'd really gained in the last year.

JC shook his head. "No!" he said, quickly realizing that Justin couldn't see him and what he was doing. He was getting frustrated that Justin was taking offense to everything he said and couldn't understand what he was trying to say, and for him that was even more proof things were different. He sighed, trying to think of how to explain how he felt to Justin.

"I feel like I'm in high school again," JC began, trying to get his thoughts in order as he spoke. "That you're on the precipice of great things and you all promise to keep in touch, to be friends for life. But your life is about to change in a big way and it's hard to keep promises like that."

"JC, we already went through a big life changing thing. The lawsuit."

JC nodded, and immediately cursed himself as he quickly stopped. He needed to stop doing that. "I know, and that's when things started to change. We became even bigger than we were practically overnight and had to rush through finishing up the album. But we'd promised we'd take our time with the next one and really enjoy it - that we'd write a lot of it together."

The confused expressed that Justin had had on his face as he listened to JC instantly smoothed and he almost sounded a bit incredulous as he said, "That's why you wigged out when I said I wanted to write with Wade?"

"Yeah," JC admitted a bit sheepishly as he looked down at the floor, his barefoot toeing a scuff mark on the hardwood floor. He knew it was childish, but he couldn't help how he felt either. "I know it's stupid, but I had it in my head that it would be the five of us with some uninterrupted studio time. Now I feel like I'm being left behind because you guys are all moving ahead with your own projects."

JC's mouth snapped closed, and he swallowed down any other words that threatened to escape. He hadn't meant to say that much; it'd seemed he'd gotten on a roll and hadn't been able to stop. And the fact that Justin instantly picked up on it and responded to it didn't surprise him in the least.

"JC, that's ridiculous," Justin told him quietly. "I don't have any other projects going on, so you're not the only one."

"Yeah, but you had Vicki. It'd seemed like you guys were heading down the path of settling down together."

Justin shook his head and mumbled to himself, "That was part of the problem."

Despite the quiet reply, JC had heard him. It got his mind spinning with ideas since none of them still knew exactly why Justin and Vicki had broken up, but he wasn't going to jump to conclusions. He wasn't going to badger Justin about it either, but he was going to make sure he knew the offer was out there to talk.

"Do you want to talk about it?" JC asked.

Justin angled his head just slightly and for a second it almost seemed like he was looking right at him, but his eyes didn't focus. As sad as it was, JC was almost grateful not to have Justin's eyes boring into his own, especially when he said, "You want to talk about Beth?"

Just then a little voice called from the living room. "JC, c'mon! I got a movie!"

JC let out a breath, happy to have an excuse to end this conversation. He called back to Alice, letting her know that he'd be right there. Then he stooped down to pick up the discarded cassette Alice had left behind and as he began to straighten, he spotted his guitar laying across the small sofa nearby. An idea began to form in his head and crossed the room to grab it, quickly and quietly messing with the tuners. He then picked it up and place it in its stand nearby, letting his hand run across the strings and he had to wince at the sound it made. His guitar was never out of tune, and hopefully by the time the movie Alice had picked was over, it would be tuned once more.

"You want to join us?" JC asked Justin, pausing in the doorway even though he knew what his answer would be.

As expected, Justin shook his head. "I think I'm going to hang in here a bit, okay?"

JC assured him that was fine and gently pulled the door so it was mostly shut, leaving Justin alone in the room with his guitar.

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

Justin adjusted the last tuner, shaking his head. He hadn't realized it at first, but now he knew JC had purposely messed with the guitar and had made sure he'd brushed against the strings for him to hear how horrible it sounded. Of course, Justin had and it'd compelled him to cross the room and pick up the guitar. It'd felt so natural to tune the guitar and it'd been the first thing he'd done without hesitation since he'd gone blind.

JC was clever; Justin would give him that. All JC had told him all day long was that being blind didn't make him incapable, and now he felt like that could be true. He hadn't needed to see to tune the guitar and while there were things he needed to be able to see to do, he was beginning to recognize that maybe he could get by with doing some of the things he'd normally done on his own. Even now as he absently strummed the chords on the guitar, he could feel his earlier belief that being blind - if it was permanent - would completely ruin his career slip away. Okay, he might not be able to perform as well onstage as he wouldn't be able to do choreography and a lot of their gags, but he wasn't incapable of singing and making music.

That didn't mean he was ready to commit to adjusting to being blind though. JC had not only given him hope that his career wouldn't be over if the blindness was permanent, but also that it really might not be permanent. It made Justin feel bad for all the things he'd said to him recently and he began to believe that he did owe JC an apology after all.

He carefully set the guitar on the couch next to him before rising to his feet. There was just a brief moment of hesitation before he took a step forward, turning left and walked towards where he knew the door was. It was one of the first time he'd moved with confidence, the exercise with the guitar proving to him he could do things on his own. That and he knew that JC had likely been going around making sure there was nothing laying in the middle of the floor for him to trip over.

Once he got to the door, he found that it was mostly closed so he took a step back and gently pulled the door towards him, making sure he was clear of it. Now that the door was open, he stepped out of the room and paused once more. He listened, thinking he'd hear the movie JC and Alice were watching, but the house was silent. As far as he could tell, there seemed to be no one on the first floor. He supposed maybe he'd been in the office longer than he'd initially thought and JC had taken Alice upstairs to get her ready for bed.

The problem with that was Justin wasn't entirely sure he remembered how to navigate through the house, especially without noises to follow. He closed his eyes, picturing the layout of JC's house in his mind. Of course he didn't know where everything was, but he could visualize the general layout. When he opened his eyes, he was sure of where he had to go and he stepped forward, moving cautiously through the foyer to reach the staircase.

When he reached the top, he paused once more to listen to see if he could determine where JC might be. The hall was heavy with silence and Justin frowned, about ready to resign himself to just picking a direction when suddenly a noise sliced through the quiet. A phone was ringing and it was coming from the left. JC's room?

Justin turned and carefully made his way to JC's room, resisting the urge to put his hands out in front of him. He was pretty sure there wasn't anything he could run into in the hall so there was no need for it. As he moved down the hall, JC's voice as he answered the phone got clearer and Justin was kind of surprised at how well he could hear him given that he wasn't in the same room as him.

"Beth, finally!" JC cried, his voice expressing his relief clearly.

Justin finally made it to the doorway of JC's room and he leaned against the wall just outside of it. All he could hear was JC's side of the phone call and it was easy to tell that his relief was quickly fading away, being replaced with irritation and concern.

"No, Alice is fine. The reason I called so many times was because I hadn't heard from you. You said a couple of days and-"

JC's voice stopped abruptly, like Beth had cut him off. He spoke again a couple seconds later, "Of course I don't mind watching her, but she misses you. She keeps asking me when you're coming to get her and I don't know what to tell her. I was beginning to think something was wrong and was getting ready to call the cops."

Justin frowned as he listened to just how intense JC's worry for Beth had gotten. When they'd confronted him in the kitchen a couple days ago, he'd admitted he was concerned about Beth and whatever was going on with her ex that she was trying to take care of. Since then it'd clearly manifested itself into something much bigger, and Justin felt a bit of guilt for having overlooked it. He'd been so wrapped up in first trying to forget about Vicki and now his self pity over being blind that he hadn't seen it. Not that he could be faulted for that because it was understandable given the situation, but he still felt bad about it. He and JC always had each other's backs and now it felt like it'd become much more one-sided with JC holding up his end of it and not him.

"Everything is not fine," JC snapped, and Justin could only assume that Beth had tried to assuage his fears. There was a deep, heavy sigh from JC before he began to speak again, his voice softer now. "Beth, you have to tell me what's going on."

Justin could only imagine what her response was. Even though he didn't know her, he could almost picture her balking at the request. From the little bit that JC had told them about her, it was evident to all of them that she cared for him as much as he did her and Justin would bet everything he had that she was trying to protect him. Something that seemed to only infuriate JC.

"You can't just disappear for days at a time with an ex that is an asshole and expect me not to ask what's going on." JC's voice was low, like he was trying to keep it from carrying down the hall to Alice's room who Justin could only assume was sleeping at this point. Even so, there was no denying the seriousness and touch of anger in it. "And if you want me to keep watching Alice, you will talk to me."

Justin knew JC's threat was an empty one - there was no way he'd force Beth to pick up Alice if she was in the middle of something that could result in the little girl getting hurt. It was a desperate tactic and one that almost always blew up in his face when he tried using it on the guys. Justin wondered if Beth knew him as well as they did and would call him out on it. He suspected she must have because JC softened his voice and sighed once more, this time sounding much more defeated.

"Beth, please. I know you wanted to handle this yourself, but it's obvious things aren't going the way you want." He paused, coughing slightly and sniffling a little. Justin thought he was getting emotional, but then he remembered how rough JC had sounded when he'd walked in on him singing to Alice downstairs. JC said, "I'm your best friend and I don't want to see anything happen to you."

There was a long pause, and Justin waited to see what Beth had said. For as much as JC's empty threats didn't work, his earnest pleas to help were often hard to ignore. And that must have been true for her as well because finally he heard JC say, "Wait a minute, I need to grab a pen."

A cacophony of noises followed, and Justin could only assume that JC was rummaging through drawers for a pen and paper. He seemed to have located one several seconds later because he directed Beth to go ahead and there was a soft scribbling sound.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning then," JC said.

Justin waited a few seconds, making sure that JC had ended the call and was off the phone before he stepped into the room. Almost instantly he bumped into something and given the fact that it moved from the momentum of him running to it, it had likely been the door. He figured it had to have been half shut and that was why he'd run into it. Regardless, it'd created a sound that echoed through the room and immediately alerted JC to his presence.

"Geez, Justin. You scared the hell out of me!" JC exclaimed, and he sounded slightly winded. Before Justin could apologize for the unintentional scare, he could feel JC step closer to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Justin assured, dismissing his concern. He let just the briefest silence settle over them before he asked, "You aren't really going to meet Beth tomorrow, are you?"

"Why wouldn't I?" JC asked, and Justin could practically hear the frown.

"Because it sounds like she's gotten herself into a dangerous situation and-"

"Wait a minute," JC interrupted. "How much of my phone call did you hear?"

Justin hesitated just briefly. "All of it. At least all of what you said."

JC was silent and Justin could imagine his eyes narrowing in anger. He knew it was wrong to have stood there and listened to what was supposed to be a private phone call, but he hadn't been able to help himself. It didn't excuse what he'd done, but it didn't change the fact that it'd happened either.

So, undeterred by the anger he was sure JC was directing at him, he continued, "I got the gist of what you were talking about, and it sounds like her ex is bad news. I know you want to help her, but don't you think it'd be better to get the cops involved?"

"She about freaked when I said I was getting ready to call them." JC sighed. "I don't know what's going on, but I have a bad feeling - a pit in my stomach that won't go away. Maybe once I know the whole story I can find a way to help."

Justin wasn't surprised by that admission. JC was always trying to help people - those he was close to definitely got most of his attention. He hated to see those he loved in trouble or struggling with a problem and often did whatever he could to make it better. It was a reason they all went to him on a fairly regular basis, but Justin wasn't convinced this situation with Beth and her ex-boyfriend was something JC could help with.

"You're not taking Alice, are you?"

"No," JC answered immediately, his voice firm. "Beth wants Alice to stay here where she's safe, and she doesn't need to hear what Beth has to say about her father."

"Well, you can't just leave her alone either." Justin could sense JC was going to protest and quickly intervened, "And I don't count. You know I can't watch her. Not like this."

"I can get Stephanie from across the street to come over and-"

"No," Justin interrupted. "I can't have anyone see me like this. And you know what's more important to Beth is that you stay with Alice."

The room was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, but she needs me," JC said, his voice soft and almost desperate sounding. It was something that made Justin frown in concern. "I need to help her."

"Look, JC. I know you're in love with her, but-"

"I'm not. We're just friends."

Justin scoffed. "Please. You love her. I can hear it in your voice when you talk about her." He paused. "I know Elaina really messed you up, but you have to trust yourself. You know what you feel for Beth is more than friendship."

"You're wrong, Justin. I love Beth, yeah, but as a friend. That's all."

Justin let a sigh of his own escape, recognizing that JC was unwilling to admit it to himself right then. He wasn't sure why, but he knew that pushing the issue wasn't going to get him anywhere. So he steered the conversation back on track, to the issue of JC meeting with Beth.

"Can you at least wait until one of the guys returns before you go meet her?"

"She's expecting me to show up at ten o'clock tomorrow and..."

"And Chris might be back by then," Justin said. "Even if he's not, will you please just wait until somebody shows up? That way you know you'll have one less thing to worry about when you go meet Beth."

There was a long pause. Justin was counting on JC's worry for Alice and how she would fare with a complete stranger she just met babysitting her to convince him he should wait until one of the guys showed up. He'd gotten the feeling when Chris had left that he was going to rush through whatever he could to get back as soon as possible. He only hoped that would be the case and someone else could talk him into getting the cops involved instead of trying to help Beth out of what was clearly a bad situation by himself.

Finally, JC said, "Okay."

Justin felt immediate relief, thankful for small favors. He hadn't gotten to apologize to JC like he'd planned on when he'd first emerged from the office, but it could wait. There was more than enough on JC's mind and the last thing Justin wanted was to bring all of the hurtful things he'd said to the front of his mind. In the meantime, he would do what he could to help distract JC.