Darcie’s eyes widened as she recognized her own hand writing on the pages JC held. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

JC looked at the pages before letting them slip from his fingers to the floor at his feet. “Then why did you write it?

Darcie shrugged, “Writing things down helps me clear my head.”

“So then why didn’t you write it in a journal?”

Darcie sighed, “I don’t have a journal. When there’s something I need to work through I write it out and then I destroy it.”

“Why?” JC asked, moving closer to her, “Why go through all the trouble of writing it out not to have it to read afterwards?”

“I read a quote somewhere that said ‘owning a diary is like reliving your own vomit’ or something close to that.” Darcie sighed, “Writing things down makes me relive what happened helps me to work through it and that’s the end of it. Why would I want to relive the things I wrote to you in that letter more then once?

“I still have nightmares about everything that happens. I dream that my dad will find us, come into my room and beat me some more.”

“But there are things you can do to prevent that!” JC told her, grabbing her hand, “There’s alarms and you could even get a restraining order!”

Darcie’s smile and laugh were bitter, “Oh he won’t come for us.”

“How do you know that?” JC demanded, “Maybe you should move in with Chris, or with one of us.”

Darcie squeezed his hand, “My dad can’t come after us because he’s dead.”

Darcie almost laughed at the look of shock on his face. Darcie sighed and climbed off her bed. She walked to her closet, pulling a shoe box down from the top shelf. She returned and sat down beside him, removing the lid and pulling a newspaper article from the top.

‘Local man killed in Police stand off.’ 

“I don’t understand.” JC said, looking up from the newspaper. “Your letter said that you had been shot.”

“I was, so was my mom, and so was Bronx.” Darcie said, “Ami had called the police and they came to the house and dad, well he eventually went out and aimed his gun at the closest officer and was shot dead.”

“I thought you said you had to put Bronx down.” JC said.

“The damage done by the bullet was so bad that there was no chance of him surviving.” Darcie sighed, wiping the tears in her eyes away.

“Do you remember when we gave him to you?”

Darcie giggled and nodded, “He was such a little trouble maker.”

~ * ~

Darcie turned her head towards the hotel room door. She could have sworn that she had heard Justin’s giggle outside the door. When the door didn’t open she shrugged to herself and went back to her book. 

She was enjoying being on tour with the guys, she only had a month left on tour and she was already a week late going back, but her mother had already told the school that she was out of the country, and Ami was collecting all her notes for her. 

She tossed the book down, this time knowing that she had heard not only Justin, but Chris and JC too. She strained to hear them, but the voices had faded to the point where she could only hear them murmuring. She sighed and picked her book up again, she was sharing the room with Chris and JC this week so she figured they must have run into Justin out in the hallway and the three of them were just talking. 

Darcie jumped as the phone beside her rang, disturbing the silence. She finally tossed her book in the direction of her suitcase, deciding that she wasn’t going to get through it. 

“Hello?” She asked as she held the receiver to her ear. 

“Hi honey, how’s the tour?” The voice of her mother was comforting to her.  

“Its fun, I wish I could stay a little longer.” Darcie told her. 

“I know honey, but you do have to come home sometime.” Samantha told her, “But other then that, have the boys given you anything for your birthday?” 

“I get to watch the show in the VIP box; I think that’s present enough.” 

“Oh Darcie, you get to see the show from there every night!” Shannon laughed. 

“Well they’re having an after party that they’re decorating for my birthday.” 

“How do you know that?” 

Darcie laughed, “They told Lance and he can’t lie to save his life.” 

“Well I just called to wish you a happy birthday; you’ve got a bunch of presents from us and Ami for when you get back home.” Shannon told her, “I’m sure Ami will be phoning you a little later, do you want to talk to your father?” 

“Um, I should actually hang up; it’s almost time for sound check anyway.” 

Darcie heard her mother sigh, “You can’t run away forever.” 

“I know mom, love you.” 

“Love you too dear.” 

Darcie rolled over to hang up the phone and noticed that the entrance of the room was brighter then normal. 

“Go forward you stupid thing!” She heard Chris whisper. 

“Way to go C, you picked the stupid one.” Justin hissed. 

“He’s not stupid, he’s scared!” JC snapped at him. 

“Shh, she’ll hear you!” Joey’s voice sounded muffled, which probably meant he was still out in the hallway. 

Darcie rolled her eyes and walked to the door, “Guys you all suck at being stealth – oh my God!” 

Justin, Chris and JC looked up from where they were crouched on the floor, Joey and Lance had their heads poking through the door and on the floor in front of all of them sat a German Shepard puppy.

 “Umm, happy birthday.” JC said. 

Darcie quickly scooped the puppy up in her arms, nuzzling it’s soft fur, “You guys, you’re amazing!” 

“You should be thanking JC; he’s the one that came up with the idea.” Lance told her. 

“What’s his name?” Darcie asked, looking at JC. 

“Bronx, like the dog on the Gargoyles cartoon that you like.” JC told her, his cheeks pinking slightly. 

Darcie ran over and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek, “I love him!” 

“It’s so that he can watch out for you when we can’t.” Chris said softly. 

~ * ~

“I think I know why Chris said that now, I didn’t think of it at the time.” Darcie whispered to JC.

JC pulled Darcie down onto his lap, “Darcie, tell me about what happened.”

Darcie sighed and reached down and pulled her shirt over her head, lowering the strap of her bra. She jumped as JC touched the scar on her shoulder. “It’s the exit wound that makes it seem a lot worse then it was. If he had been sober I probably would be dead since the doctor figures he was going to aim for my heart.”

“Does it hurt now?”

Darcie shook her head, “It gets stiff, and I sometimes have limited mobility. The day we moved Chris in and Ami and I were moving that bitch of a box, her side slipped a little and it made me pretty much drop my side cause my hand had started to go numb.”

JC’s thumb rubbed slowly over the scar, “Tell me what happened.”

~ * ~ 

“Mom, do you need anything else at the store?” Darcie called from the front door, she looked at Ami when there was no response, but Ami could only shrug.

“Maybe she didn’t hear you.” 

Darcie sighed and kicked her shoes off, walking towards the back of the house. “Mom?” 

Darcie gasped as her father appeared around the corner, grabbing her arm.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” 

“I need to go get a few things from the store.” Darcie told him, “Ami and I go on tour soon remember?” 

“No you’re not!” Jeremy yelled at his daughter. 

A growl drew Darcie’s attention, “Ami, can you take Bronx outside?” 

“Sure.” Ami said, turning to grab the dog by his collar, “My God, Samantha!”

Darcie glanced over her shoulder and saw her mother sitting on the floor, her eyes were closed.  

“What did you do?” She demanded of her father. 

“Shut up, you have no right to ask questions.” Jeremy snapped, twisting her arm slightly. 

“The hell I don’t, what did you do to my mom!” 

“Don’t disrespect me you ungrateful little bitch!” 

The pain shooting through Darcie’s arm as her father wrenched it behind her back made her cry out. She not only felt but heard the pop as her shoulder dislocated from its socket.

Behind her Bronx was growling and barking as he struggled against Ami’s hold, desperately trying to get between the man that was threatening his mistress. 

“Dad, please stop!” Darcie cried, tears streaming down her face. 

“You are not taking off to go and hang out with those stupid pop boys.” Her father screamed at her as he pushed her to the floor. “Especially not with Chris, what does a man who’s almost 30 want with a 17 year old girl!” 

“Dad it’s nothing, you know it’s not!” Darcie pleaded, “He’s one of my best friends, he has been since him and Dale dated.” 

“And I have no doubt that you’re the one who broke them up.” 

“Jeremy please!” Samantha pleaded from her spot on the floor as she seemed to snap back into consciousness, holding her already bruising cheek, “You’re hurting her!” 

Darcie gasped and Ami screamed as Jeremy pulled his magnum revolver from the back of his pants. Darcie closed her eyes, her whole body shaking.  

A snarl behind them made both Darcie and her father turn in time to see Bronx break free of Ami and jump at Jeremy. Darcie screamed as her father calmly pulled the trigger, the force of the bullet sending her poor dog back with a yelp, before collapsing in a heap on the floor.

Darcie stared at her dog, listening to the quiet whimpers that were escaping him as Ami pressed her hands to the bullet wound. 

“What have you done?” Darcie cried, turning her eyes to her father. 

“Something I should have done the minute that you walked through the door with that fucking thing!” 

Darcie twisted her body, managing to free her arm, “You’ve lost your mind!”  

Jeremy’s hand wasn’t steady as he aimed the gun at his daughter, “No, I’m just sick of having to deal with you.” 

It took Darcie a few seconds to realize that the noise she had heard was the gun going off.

She staggered as the bullet slammed through her shoulder. It was enough to almost knock her off her feet, but it definitely brought her to her knees. At first she couldn’t feel any pain, then she felt something warm soak through her shirt, and she raised her right arm to see what it was. Her fingers came away, covered in liquid. She knew it was blood, but because of the moonlight shining through the window, it appeared black instead of red. She tried to raise her left arm and a burning sensation tore through her shoulder and she fell forward. 

~ * ~

“I woke up in the hospital four days later.” Darcie told him, not failing to notice how his arms had tightened around her. “They had done emergency surgery to repair the bone and tissue as much as they could. I have six pins and several screws holding the bone together. They said that the damage would have been a lot worse if dad hadn't already dislocated my shoulder.”

“What about your mom?” JC asked, drawing Darcie’s attention to his face.

“She was shot in the leg.” Darcie said, wiping the tears from his cheeks, “They think dad probably was going to shoot Ami too, but she had run from the house to call the cops.

“Mom was out of the hospital within a few weeks, I was out after six months. Of course I had to go through some intense physio. Ami had called Chris and he came out to Toronto. He was the one that suggested to mom that she move out to Orlando. He knew my aunt and uncle were out there, and he suggested that it would be best for all of us.”

“But how did he go to Toronto without the rest of us knowing?” JC asked.

“You guys were on your break, as far as you guys knew, he was just coming out to visit me.” Darcie told him.

They jumped as the door flew open and Darcie quickly jumped to her feet. Justin stared at her for a few minutes. He and Darcie stared at each other and she could see that his eyes were shining.

“Darcie?” Justin said softly.

“Everything okay Justin?” Darcie asked.

She just about fell over when Justin’s body slammed against hers and he pulled her to him and hugging her tightly. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back. She soon felt JC’s arms slide around them and the three of them held onto each other tightly like lifelines.

A sniffle in the doorway made them break apart as Lance appeared, tears in his eyes. Darcie laughed and held open her arms, hugging him when he wrapped his arms around her. Chris and Joey appeared not long after and Darcie rolled her eyes.

“Let’s just get this over with, group hug!” She teased.

The guys all laughed softly and Darcie soon found herself in the middle of all five of them.

“Well damn, if I had known you were going to have a boy band orgy, I would have come up a lot sooner.” Ami said her voice thick with unshed tears.

“Come on Aims, come get some lovin’.” Justin said, holding a hand out to her. 

After a few minutes Darcie pushed at them, “Alright, enough of this mushy crap, I’m hungry!”

The guys left and began to file out of her room. Chris kissed the side of her head before screaming Joey’s name as he left the room. Darcie shook her head and moved to the door.

“Darcie?” She stopped and looked back at JC, “What about now?”

“Now?”

“Yeah, how are you doing now?” He asked.

Darcie smiled and held out her hand to him, lacing her fingers through his. “Now, things are perfect!”