"Hey Sheryl. It's Justin. How are you?"

"Hey Justin. I am doing good. What are you up to?" Sheryl asked, sitting down on the couch in her living room, cradling the cordless phone between her ear and her shoulder.

"Not much, just trying to get you some furniture to rent while you are here, but we ran into a problem which is why I am calling." Justin told her from the other end of the line.

"Ahh, and the truth comes out. You didn't want to talk to me. I get it. Don't worry about it. I see how it is." Sheryl joked.

"Come on Sher, we need a little help here. Joey JC and I are on furniture duty and if you leave it to either one of us, it will either be completely baby blue, leopard print or screaming of bachelor pad. So you have to tell us what you want." Justin told her, while swatting at Joey who was trying to get the cell phone away from him.

"Ok, let me see. JC can design my room if he wants. You can do the living room and Joey can do the spare bedroom that Lance said was in the apartment. Oh did I tell you that he already called. I think it is cool we will be in the same building as you and Chris. At least there is someone else around for Sadie to whine to from time to time." Sheryl said, laughing when she heard the phone hit the ground and a struggle for it.

"Hey sweetie. Don't you miss me?" Joey's voice came on the other end.

"I miss my macho man. Where is he? Can you put him on?" Sheryl said, and laughed again, when she heard Joey grumble and give the phone back to Justin.

"What was that all about?" Justin asked laughing at his friend.

"Nothing really. Tell Joey I still love him though." Sheryl said, and heard Justin do what she asked.

"So, JC gets your room, I get the living room, Joey gets the spare bedroom and what about Sadie's room? What do you want us to do about that?" Justin asked.

"Hold on and I will let you talk to her about that." Sheryl said, pulling the phone away from her ear and covering the mouthpiece to lessen the sound. "Sadie, come get the phone." She yelled into the apartment. "She is on her way. Thank you guys so much for doing this. I can't believe how sweet you guys are. Thank you so much. Here is Sadie. I will talk to you later, J." Sheryl said, and then handed the phone to her sister.

"Hello?" Sadie said into the receiver.

"Hey sweets. How ya doing?" Justin asked, noticing the lack of emotion to her tone.

"I'm fine. I can't wait to get back down there to kick your butt, but I think I can hold out.. Did you need something?" Sadie asked, her jokes falling flat for lack of emotion.

"Do I have to 'need' something to call a friend?" Justin asked, faking shock.

"No but I know you need something because you were asking Sherri questions. So what is it?" Sadie asked, almost laughing at the tone in his voice.

"Well, at least I got you to smile and don't say that you aren't because I can hear it." Justin told her.

"OK so I am smiling. What do you need?"

"Well, we are trying to get you some furniture for your apartment and we didn't know what kind you wanted. The living room, spare bedroom and your sister's room are all taken care of. What do you want in your room." "Justin asked her.

"Who is on furniture detail?" Sadie asked in return.

"Me, Joey and JC."

"Cool, just mix it up for me. That ought to look interesting. Just do a little of all three." Sadie told him, smiling as she imagined what it would look like.

"If you are sure. Do you know what you are getting yourself into?" Justin asked, laughing at the thought as well.

"Sure, just mix it up and see what comes out. I can't wait to see it." Sadie said, full out laughing now.

"Well, don't say that I didn't warn you. I guess I will let you go now. I will see you the day after tomorrow. We are coming up to help you pack." Justin told her.

"I know. I guess I will see you then. Take care and tell the guys that I said hi and thanks for everything. Talk to you later. Bye, JT." Sadie said, then hung up the phone.

"What was so funny?" Sheryl asked coming back into the living room, a bowl of popcorn in her hands.

"Well, you know who is on furniture duty right?" Sadie asked, laughing at the renewed thought.

"Yea,"

"Well, he told me who was doing what room and I told him to mix the three for my room and see what happened. I can't wait to see it. It is going to look like a pimp daddy, GQ, baby blue explosion." Sadie said, both her and Sheryl laughing at the image that she painted for her room.

It was two days after the guys did their little house warming project and they were on their way to Gainesville to help the girls pack and bring their things back to Orlando.

"I can't wait to get there. It feels like we haven't seen them in forever and it has only been a few days." Justin said, bouncing excitedly in his seat next to Lance in Lance's 4-runner.

"We are almost there. Do you remember the apartment number?" Lance asked, stopping for a stop light.

"24. I think that's it on the left there. Why didn't we just follow JC?" Justin asked, looking at the directions that he had in his hand.

"Uh, because he wasn't leaving for another hour. You wanted to get here early, remember?" Lance said, pulling into the parking lot of the apartment complex.

"Right. Sorry. So anyway, lets get up there and get to packing." Justin said, jumping out of the car.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Lance asked, looking at the tall building.

"Will you stop worrying. Sadie said that she had a tan colored Jeep Cherokee. There is a tan Jeep over there." Justin said, pointing in the direction of the vehicle before disappearing in the door. Lance and Justin rode the elevator up to the fourth floor and quickly found the door that they were looking for.

"If you still doubted me, does that answer your question?" Justin asked, pointing to the door, where there was a message pad with their names on it.

"Yea, I guess that would mean we are in the right place, huh?" Lance said, shaking his head at his younger friends excitement.

"Why are you so excited? I mean, you practically just met these two and you act like you have known them for years and haven't seen them in a really long time." Lance said, eyeing his friend.

"I don't know. Maybe its' because Sadie understands to a degree what I am going through. We can talk and don't feel weird about it. Not saying that it is weird with you guys, but you know what I mean." Justin said, shrugging his shoulders. "Besides, you were the one up at the crack of dawn, ready to hit the road. What was that all about?" Justin asked his friend suspiciously.

"I knew that you couldn't wait to get here and I also knew that if we started out early we could miss any traffic." Lance said, practically pushing Justin out of the way so that he could knock on the door that they had been standing in front of for several minutes. They waited silently for a few minutes before they heard movement inside. The door jerked open to reveal a disheveled looking Sadie, followed by a fresher looking Sheryl.

"What in the world are you two doing here so early?" Sadie asked, throwing the door open for them to come in.

"Hi Sadie, its nice to see you too." Lance said, walking into the apartment.

"Sorry, I just kinda got up, if you could call it that." Sadie said, plopping down on the couch and motioning for the guys to do the same.

"Well, we are here early because someone was in a hurry and a little excited." Lance said, sitting on the couch beside Sadie, Sheryl sitting on his other side.

"Why were you so excited. Couldn't wait to see us, huh?" Sheryl said, laughing. Justin took a seat on the floor in front of the couch.

"I just couldn't wait. Besides, do you know how long it has been since I have been on a road trip? It seems like forever." Justin said, over dramatically. "Looks like you had a rough night, Sade."

"Don't remind me. I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned. When I did sleep I had nightmares and they woke me up again. It is all one vicious cycle. One that I hope to rectify soon." Sadie said, getting up from her spot and walking into the kitchen.

"She has been like this ever since we got back. She has tried everything. I don't know what this doctor of yours is going to do for her, but I hope it works. I don't think she can go on like this for much longer." Sheryl said, the worry and concern evident in the tone of her voice.

"You don't have to worry sis. I am sure that Dr. Townsend will think of something that will help." Sadie said, returning to the room. She placed a reassuring hand on her sister's shoulder before turning to the others. "You guys want some coffee, or juice or anything?"

"No I'm good." Lance answered, Justin shaking his head to decline the offer. Sadie smiled at them and returned to the kitchen.

"I hate it when she does that. She won't even be in the same room and she can know what I am saying about her." Sheryl said, scowling in the direction of the kitchen.

"You better believe I know what you are saying about me. I have to keep tabs on you some how." Sadie called back into the living room. The guys laughed at the antics.

"So I guess we had better get started, huh? When are the rest of the guys getting here?" Sheryl asked standing up from the couch and moving to where she had some boxes already filled.

"They should be here in about an hour or so. They had some things to do before heading out." Lance said, helping her to lift the box. They started to the door with some of the boxes while Justin and Sadie went to work on packing some more of their things. With the four of them working, it took only an hour or so to finish packing up the apartment. Now all that was left to do was load it into the vehicles and head back to Orlando.

"Looks like a tornado hit this place." JC commented, entering the apartment through the door that had been left open. Chris and Joey followed behind him. They side stepped boxes and stepped over piles of trash that had been put by the door.

"Don't you guys know that when you pack, the place is supposed to get cleaner?" Chris commented looking around the living room, filled with boxes and other things to be loaded up.

"Chris, that's only after you get everything actually OUT of the place." Sadie commented trying to move past them with a very large box. "Um, guys. Some assistance here would be nice." Sadie commented at the three that were blocking the door.

"Here, give me that before you go falling on your face, short stuff." Joey said, taking the large box from her and setting it down in the hallway.

"Thanks. I think." Sadie said, raising one eyebrow at him. "Now, I can start loading some stuff into my Jeep, if someone can tell me where my keys are. They were around her somewhere." Sadie said, going on the hunt for her keys.

"Where did you leave them?" Lance asked, looking on every flat surface in the room.

"Well, they were right over there on the mantel. I keep them in a little box so that I know where they are." Sadie explained, looking over the mantle and on the floor around it for her keys.

"Sadie, um, was it a little black box with a wizard on it?" Justin asked, praying that she said no.

"Yea, why? Have you seen it?" Sadie asked, turning to him. She noticed the guilty look in his eyes. He bowed his head down a little. Her shoulders drooped and she let out a sigh. "Please tell me you didn't Justin. Please tell me you didn't pack it with the rest of the living room stuff." She begged him.

"I�.I�I'm really sorry. I didn't know. I thought it was just an ornamental box." Justin explained, his eyes begging her forgiveness. She let out another sigh and dropped her head to her chest, before looking up at him again.

"It wasn't your fault. I should have grabbed them before we started packing. You didn't know. It's ok, but now we have to go through all of the living room boxes to find the keys." Sadie said, working her way out into the hall where the living room boxes were piled.

"I did it, I'll help you look." Justin said, sitting down on the floor beside her.

"Thanks." She said, opening the first box.

"So I guess we had better take the bedroom stuff and the kitchen boxes down, and load as much as we can into my car, and your cars." Sheryl said, turning to the rest of the group. "I got permission from the land lord to load everything into the elevators and send it down, everyone else in the building knows not to use it while we are loading. Not that it is a problem anyway, seeing as everyone else is at work." Sheryl said, with a laugh as she picked up a large box and started out. The other four followed her carrying more boxes.

The five of them made several trips past the pair on the floor before everything else was loaded into the elevator.

"Oh, My God! Sadie, I found it! I found the box!" Justin shouted jumping up from the floor, holding the prize in his hands.

"Justin calm down already. Jeeze, it's just a box." Sadie said, laughing at his enthusiasm as she took the box from him. She opened it quickly and frowned at him. The others were coming out of the apartment now, after hearing the shouts.

"What is it? Sadie?" Justin questioned, not liking the look that she had on her face.

"The keys aren't in here." She replied, glancing around at everyone in the hall. They all stared back at her, their mouths opened in shock and disbelief.

"WHAT?!" they all chorused. Sadie tried as hard as she could not to laugh but she couldn't resist the looks on their faces. She doubled over with laughter, her face turning red and her short brown hair falling into her face.

"What's so funny?" Sheryl asked, just as confused as everyone else.

"C, man, I think she actually lost it this time." Joey said to JC who was standing beside him. JC just shook his head in agreement.

"You should have seen your faces." Sadie managed to choke out between gasps for air. "You looked like you were all about to have coronaries. That was a good one."

"What are you talking about, 'good one'?" Chris asked, skeptically. Sadie began laughing uncontrollably again. She raised her hand and showed them the keys.

"You mean you had them the whole time?" Justin asked, looking at her as if she had just grown two heads.

"Justin, when you found that little box, I thought you were going to pee your pants." She said, rolling around on the floor, holding her sides, which were beginning to hurt.

"You don't put your keys in that box, do you?" Lance asked, his irritation showing.

"I do, but I put them in my pocket when I got dressed. I just wanted to have a little fun before we left.'' Sadie said, noting his irritated tone, but couldn't stop the last of the giggles from slipping.

"Sheena Dawn, you had better have this stuff back in it's boxes in fifteen minutes and ready to put in your truck. I am not waiting around for you. If you aren't ready to go in twenty minutes, too bad. You will just have to get there on your own." Sheryl said, storming off down the hall.

"But Sherri, I was only kidding. It was a joke. Come on you guys. You can't be serious. How am I supposed to get all of this back in the boxes in fifteen minutes, without something getting broken?" Sadie asked, looking around at the others, who didn't look too happy with her either. "Guys, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to cause a problem. I just wanted to play a prank. I am truly sorry." Sadie said, turning to start packing the things back in the box.

"I did think it was kinda funny." Chris whispered, getting elbowed from Lance as they started down the hall.

"We can't just leave her there. She isn't going to get all of that stuff packed again in fifteen minutes." Joey said, turning to look at her as she worked. JC egged him on to the elevator.

"Sheryl has an agenda here guys." Lance said, leaving it at that. He wasn't quite sure what her agenda for doing this was but he was sure that she had one. They caught up with her outside, waiting by the cars.

"I meant what I said, guys. Fifteen minutes and we are out of here." Sheryl said, turning away from them and getting in her car to wait. The guys just stood around. They didn't know what to do but wait. Slowly the minutes crept by and Sadie still hadn't come down from upstairs.

"Ok guys. It's time to go. We have taken enough of your time away from you. She can make it down there on her own." Sheryl said, starting her car and putting it in gear. The guys shrugged at each other and got into their cars.

"Justin, come on buddy." Lance called over to him. Joey was waiting outside of JC's Jeep.

"Joe, you ride with Lance. I am going to stay here and help Sadie." Justin said, going back towards the apartment building.

"But Sheryl doesn't�"Joey trailed off as Justin put up his hand. Sheryl had already left the parking lot, JC right behind her.

"I know what Sheryl was doing, and I understand that, but she didn't think of one thing." Justin told his friend, laughing at the older sisters slip.

"What's that?" Lance asked, curious.

"She forgot that Sadie doesn't know where the apartment is. Neither of them have been there and we were going to lead them there, remember?" Justin said, laughing a little at the realization that dawned on the two in the 4-runner.

"I gotcha. I guess you should go back up then. We will see ya there in a little while I guess." Joey said, waving as he closed the car door and Lance took off out of the parking lot. Justin laughed to himself as he made his way back up to the fourth floor. The elevator opened and Sadie was still trying to get things in the boxes that they had come from.

"I figured that you would be gone by now." Sadie said, not glancing at him.

"Well, your sister kinda forced everyone else to leave but she doesn't know that I left. I couldn't let you go down there by yourself." Justin said, kneeling down to help her.

"I have done it before. I have made longer trips alone." Sadie said, placing a small porcelain horse into the box, the figured wrapped in foam.

"Yea, well, I thought of something while they were getting ready to leave and I can't let you do that alone. You wouldn't be able to." Justin said, laughing again.

"What is that?" Sadie said, stopping what she was doing and looking at him.

"Well, finding your way around Orlando is confusing enough, if you know where you are going. Can you imagine trying to find something you have never seen or been to before? Say a certain apartment building you are living in." Justin said, catching her eye.

"I didn't even think about that. Oh my god, I would have been so lost. Thank you for not going with them. I don't blame them though. That was a lousy trick I played and I know Sherri is just trying to teach me the same lesson she has been trying to teach me for years now." Sadie said, resuming her packing.

"And what lesson is that?" Justin asked, looking at her.

"To face my problems, instead of making excuses and laughing to scoot around them. The prank was just one of my many defense mechanisms. I don't like to face my problems. That's why when it happened before�." Sadie trailed off, realizing what she was about to say. She jerked her eyes away from his and started packing again.

"What about last time?" Justin asked concerned by this side of her he had never seen before.

Sadie sat there for a few minutes not saying anything. I can't tell him. He understands a lot about me, but he would never understand that. None of them would. I don't even understand it. I can't take them looking at me the way my family did when they found out. The way they did at school. I can't take that again. "I am scared, Justin." Sadie admitted quietly, sidestepping his question. She could feel her eyes beginning to water before her vision blurred.

"What are you scared of, Sheena?" Justin asked, worry in his voice.

"I'm scared that I won't be able to handle it again. I am so scared that�" Sadie trailed off, not wanting him to know how weak she was. She wouldn't look at him, couldn't. She knew that he would be able to see. She knew that he would know and that he would want to be around her anymore.

"You can handle it. You are probably one of the strongest people that I know. I know you can do this." Justin said, his voice gently, assuring. His gentleness is what broke her.

Sadie brought her hands up to her face and wept into them. Her body shaking as if there were an earthquake going on inside of her. Justin's heart broke for her. Before he even knew what he was doing, his arms were around her and he was clinging to her as if his life depended on it. She stiffened at first but let him comfort her. She welcomed the comfort that his arms could bring her. She nuzzled her head deeper into his black shirt, soaking the front of it with her tears. He didn't care. He just wanted her to be all right. He wanted to be there for her and this was the only way that he knew how.

"I am just so scared, JT." Sadie said, using her nickname for him.

"Have you talked to Dr. Townsend about your fears?" Justin asked, rocking her back and forth trying to get her tears to subside.

"That is why I am scared. JT, I don't sleep because I am scared to. I know it isn't healthy and I have tried so many times, but my mind won't let me. It is scared too. I dream horrible dreams when I sleep." Sadie said through her tears, the thought of the nightmares making them come faster.

"What is it about Dr. Townsend that scares you?" Justin asked. Having known the doctor for some time, Justin had come to find him a great comfort when it came to something that was troubling him. Not so much as his friends were, but with the things that he couldn't tell them in the beginning. He just couldn't understand why it would scare her.

Sadie sat there in silence, her sniffles the only response to his question. She truly didn't know why she was so scared of the doctor that was helping Justin and who was to help her. She was terrified. That was all that she did know for sure.

"We don't have to talk about it now. When ever you're ready." Justin said, his voice soothing and his hand rubbing her back as she attempted to dry the rest of her tears.

Chapter 5

Chapter 7