*****
"Okay. Countersuing for...what, $25 million?" Justin asked. "That sounds so...little compared to what they want from us."
"They aren't going to get it," Lance said firmly.
"What if they do?" Justin asked softly. "We wouldn't be able to recover from that. The way they're making us out...it's like we're greedy, like we don't want...we're turning our backs on them..."
"You ain't," Lance said, shaking his head. "Your fans will believe anything you guys say. You know it, I know it, and Lou and his friends know it. Now...you guys should probably--"
"Why do you keep saying 'you guys,' Lance?" Chris asked quietly. "This is your fight too. We wouldn't have been able to do this without you."
Lance reddened. "You could've--"
"No," Joey said, shaking his head. "We want you back in the group."
Lance blushed even more and looked down at the papers on the table. He pointed to a line. "Y...we should probably write an official statement and all that, and like...um, written documents in the counterclaim...one of you guys should write one..."
"JC," Justin said immediately.
JC spoke for the first time. "Me?! What?"
Chris laughed. "Wake up, Sleepy. They'll take you more seriously then they will us. Can you imagine them reading a statement from Joey?"
"Hey!" Joey interjected.
"It's true," Justin informed him.
Joey thought about that. "Well, yeah, but..."
Lance smiled. "Okay, so we agree on Jace doin' the input from you guys."
"My Mom said she'd do something," Justin said. "She's as mad about the money thing as we are, naturally."
"Yeah, okay," Lance agreed. "And um, Johnny would probably do one, right?" The others nodded slowly. He sighed and banged his head against the table. "This is crazy."
*****
JC had his lips pursed and his brow furrowed in concentration as he scribbled on a piece of paper. "Greedy...sophisticated...businessman...no, no...unscrupulous greedy and sophisticated businessman..." he muttered. JC wrinkled his nose. "I wonder if that sounds too...wordy..." he muttered, reading it. "Maybe they'd accept fat greedy lying son of a bitch bastard fuckhead. Hmm." He sighed and laid his head on the table. "This sucks."
***
Chris' leg bounced up in down in time to the noise coming from the Nintendo. "Come on, left, right...left...up...side...damn! Mario, you suck, man. No more meatballs. You ain't gonna get Princess Fungi lookin' like that." He immediately started a new game, knowing that if he stopped, he'd think about that, and he was tired of thinking about it. He pursed his lips and turned down the sound so he didn't wake any of the others.
He knew JC wasn't sleeping. The younger man had thrown himself into his music and into Lance to keep his mind off of "it." He shut himself up in a little studio and wrote, whether it be songs, melodies, hooks, or tinkering with the keyboard, even. Writing new songs because the bastards at TransCon had taken his away from him. Chris furrowed his brow as he thought about JC. Now he was writing that...thing to help get away from Lou, the Lou that Chris himself had befriended in the beginning, and now it was all his fault that they were in the mess to begin with...In his way of thinking, it was only a matter of time before the rest of them remembered that little detail...it was his fault...
He kept his mouth shut for the sake of the others. Mentally, he screamed. "Left, right...up...side...left again...Keep your mind in the games, Kirkpatrick...that's the only place you belong..."