***
The others watched as Joey walked back into the room, his expression distracted. "Hey, man, you all right?" Justin asked.
"Fine," Joey said. "JC up yet?"
"Sort of," came the groan from the bed. "Thanks for my little 'conversation,' by the way. If I felt like getting up I'd kill you all. You took advantage of the fact that I talk in my sleep and that's just not cool."
Joey looked at him oddly for a second before laughing. "Sure it is."
"So what was that message?"
"Hmm? Oh...it was...well..." Joey shut his eyes. "Well...um...you know...how you all believe in guardian angels, right?" He received a nod from the other three. None of them bothered to mention the fact that Ken was still absent. None of them really cared, actually. "I sort of...well, met mine."
"You what?" Justin asked incredulously. "What are you talking about? When?"
"When?" Joey suddenly looked uncomfortable. He'd never told them this. "The first time? That was when...Itriedtokillmyself."
"You what?" Chris asked, eyes wide.
"I kinda...sorta...almost tried to kill myself..." Joey said, putting his hand on his head. He looked down, not wanting to see the looks on his friend's faces. "You remember Lydia?" he asked, directing his question at Chris and JC. They nodded. "It was right after she left me...I was devastated and..." he trailed off and shrugged. "I wasn't thinking clearly." He looked up, but focused on looking at the wall.
"Dude..." Chris started then shook his head and drew in a slightly shaky breath. His voice was full of surprise that the perpetually happy Joey would have actually wanted to kill himself. "I'm...glad you didn't...what happened?"
Joey sighed and closed his eyes. He told them all about how he'd been ready to do it when the guy had appeared behind him, but only in the mirror. Then he told them about how he'd been shaking his head, the hug..."When he hugged me...there was this...warmth...and I could see him in the mirror, ya know..."
No one noticed JC's eyes widen at that. Was that...had that been his own angel? Or...
Joey continued. "He's been coming around a lot lately...I don't know why, but well...Nikolas said he was being rebellious..." Joey's eyes became unfocused and he started mumbling to himself. They all wanted to know who Nikolas was, but held off on asking.
"Joey?" Justin asked, trying to get him back on track. "What's his name? Do you know it?"
"Who, the angel?" Justin nodded. "Yeah," Joey said. "It's..." he looked straight at JC "He's been coming around more ever since you started having those dreams...his name..." he stopped and rubbed his eye. "His name is Lance."
JC gasped. "What...that could just be...how would I..."
"I don't know. But Nikolas is..."
"Nikolas? Is that the guy that was here?" Justin asked curiously. "Yeah. He's Lance's...boss and he like...he came and...um." Joey stopped and decided to start again. "Lance was here. Today. When Lou was yelling, when Chris and Ken got into the fight. I saw him in the mirror...and right..." Joey looked back at JC. "Right before you screamed, he disappeared. No one knows where he went."
***
Lance looked up dumbly, feeling drained, and tried to get up before realizing he couldn't. His wrists were tied and he was tied to...something, and he couldn't move. He heard a snicker and his eyes widened. "We finally caught you," the other hissed. "Tell me, boy, why exactly you decided to keep going back to earth?" Lance remained silent, an icy glare directed towards the voice. He pulled against his bonds but it didn't do any good. "Don't even bother. It'll only drain you more. Because you do feel drained, don't you, James?"
"What do you want?" Lance asked slowly.
"Oh, didn't your precious Nikolas tell you? You're one of the innocent ones...one of those that only come around once every few hundred years. And the fact that you're one of the favorites up there only makes this little victory sweeter."
*****
"What does this have to do with JC?" Justin asked. "I don't understand..."
Joey started pacing anxiously. "I don't know. All I know is that my angel, Lance, has been showing up like, daily. From what I gathered, he also seems to think that Lou is...bad...or stealing our money or something..." he saw the confused looks on the other's faces and continued. "He thinks we should have JC's uncle look at our contracts, but anyway..."
"An angel told you all this?" Chris asked a little skeptically.
"It seems a little far-fetched," Justin pointed out. "I mean...an angel?"
"I know it does, but that's not the point! The point is he's gone. Look. Right before JC screamed, he was fighting something. Then he disappears and you, JC, pass out. Doesn't that seem just a bit odd to you? Cause like..." he trailed off, wondering if he really should have told them. The Nikolas guy had said he could, right before he...vanished? So...
"But what does that have to do with me? I don't...I don't get it," JC said, speaking up again.
"I don't know," Joey sighed. "Just like, a hunch or something. Cause...that Nikolas guy said that even though he's my guardian, he likes taking care of you three as well."
"Ken?" JC asked, raising an eyebrow. Joey smiled. "Apparently, Lance likes Ken about as much as we do right now." JC smiled and Chris snorted in laughter. Joey continued. "Then, he said that he pays more attention to me...for obvious reasons, but he also watches JC a lot too, and..."
JC was silent, a frown of confusion creasing his brow. "And what?" Justin asked.
"Well..." Joey stopped. "That one day, you came into the bathroom, JC? When I saw that um...bug..."
JC pursed his lips in concentration and then nodded. "Yeah, I remember that. There was no bug there though," he said with a smile.
"No, there wasn't," Joey agreed. "He was sitting on top of the shower." There were a few raised eyebrows, but Joey kept going. "And he got really sad looking when he saw you..." He stopped again, and looked at JC. "And...he seemed really interested in your necklace."
JC's hand flew to his neck. "You don't think..." he said, tilting his head.
"I don't know," Joey said. "I'm just really confused. And I'm scared...for him."