Act 3 , Scene 2

Joey was seeing the end of the forest.

        He was standing in the edge of it, really. He could see the field of green, emerald grass just past the trees.

        He was mere feet away to be free.

        But he couldn't move.

        He couldn't will his feet to move, to run through those feet and be free, free from the forest, free from the almond eyes that had chased him all those days, all those nights.

        Because he couldn't imagine a night without the company of the almond eyes.

        A night without Chris.

* * *

        Joey woke up with a jerk, drenched in sweat.

        It had been five weeks since he had simply left his hotel, trying to put his thoughts in order. Five weeks since he had starting having the same dream every night, the dream that he had started having when Meredith left him

(and, wasn't it curious that the name of his old flame didn't cause him pain anymore)

                                                            and that kept him awake for most of the night.

        For weeks, he had tried to figure out who his chaser was.

        For months he had been wondering why would he, a city boy if ever was one, would dream of forests, of playful hide and seeks with a wild stranger.

        And now, when he was not only running away from almond clear eyes in his dreams, but also in his wide awake moments, now he finally remembered.

        "No…" He muttered to no one in particular. "This is wrong. I don't dream with Chris Kirkpatrick…"

        But even so, he rolled on the small bed and took his journal from the night table, a journal he had started at Steve's insistence, because Steve wanted to help him with his nightmares, and start writing…

        I know who is chasing me in that forest… And         now I know why I didn't want to let him catch         me.

* * *

        Chris was idly playing the piano, trying to convey all his thoughts, all his worries, into one melody.Not that it was working.

        Usually, when he got stuck while composing, AJ would come up and talk to him, until whatever that was blocking his mind simply ebbed away. But AJ was lying in a bed in a hospital, and the only sign that they had that his friend was still alive was a beep and a line in a scanner, and every day that passed it was more and more unlikely that he could wake up.

"You o.k., K?" Brian stepped into the studio, his blue eyes searching for any sign of what was wrong.

"No." Chris answered, truthfully. He had been having nightmares for weeks, nightmares where he was running, trying to reach Joey, only to have him slip away from between his fingers. Nightmares where he was lost in a forest, alone, and cold, and miserable.

        It was worse when he had happy dreams though. Because in his happy dreams, AJ was fine, and Joey was fine, and nothing seemed wrong in the world… Only to have him wake up to the horrible reality he was living.

        So no. He wasn't o.k.

"Wanna talk about it?" Brian asked, truthfully, and Chris found himself considering it. When he had first meet Brian, back when Kevin said that his cousin's voice would be a perfect addition to the group, Chris had been a little afraid of the strawberry blond
Kentucky-raised man. Everyone was so much taller than himself, so Chris always was a little cautious when meeting new people. But Brian in particular stroke him the wrong way at the beginning.

        Then things had changed, and he had become AJ's best friend, and Nick's big brother, and Kevin's trustworthy confident… And he had learned to like Brian. And, it seemed Brian liked him in return.

"I fell in love with someone." Chris finally said, his alto voice sounding very, very faint. "But… I don't think he loves me back."

"What?!" Brian asked, his eyes growing wide. And Chris, with his head down, started telling Brian all about Joey, not noticing his friend's eyes going darker, his frown deepening, with each word.

"And that's what…" He tried to finish, but Brian slapped him, hard, making him stop and look at the enraged man with surprise.

"DON'T. COME. NEAR. ME… YOU… LITTLE FAGGOT!!!" Brian yelled, and Chris got to his feet, running out of the room as fast as he could, trying to ignore the tears in his eyes.

* * *

        Lance had been busy.

        After his little visit to AJ, he had been checking the hotel reservations where everything had happened, only to find that, incredibly, Jive themselves had given strict orders to have both groups in the same hotel, in connecting floors.

        So he had started digging deeper.

        And found that every time that the Backstreet Boys
'happened' to appear where *N Sync were, was because of Jive's traveling arrangements.

        It was almost as if someone was trying to be sure that there would be conflict between the two groups at every step they made.

        A little bit of investigation later, he had also discovered that many magazines were forbidden to publish and article about one of the groups if they didn't put an article about the other band in the same issue. That Jive always offered more pictures to those magazines who printed a 'Boyband war' kind of article, a 'Who's cuter? Timberlake or Carter?' trivia or a 'Show your love for your band' contest.

        It was sickening.

        Because Jive was becoming rich by promoting their hate.

* * *

        Chris was alone in AJ's room. Since he was AJ's best friend, the cop had agreed to wait in the aisle. Since he was a Backstreet Boy, he was allowed to be there even when visit hours were over long ago.

"Brian hates me, Bones." Chris said, sadly, as he traced Aj's hand with his finger. "He hit me, and yelled at me. I know that by now he must have told everything to Kevin and Nick… and they're going to hate me too."

        The lights of the city could be seen through the window, and Chris sighed, before taking AJ's hand with his own.

"I could deal with that. If someone was there for me now…" He sighed again, and then fingered the small package inside of his breast pocket, a package he had bought a day after Brian yelled at him. "But you're here… and no one knows where Joey is…"

        Chris looked at AJ's peacefully sleeping face, and wondered when had been the last time he had seen his friend without his dark glasses. Tried very hard to remember how AJ's eyes looked like.

"Joey hates me, AJ. I know. And… And I can't really deal with that."

* * *

        Joey was in the forest again.

        Only that this time, he wasn't running towards the edge, towards the so called freedom.

        He was walking towards the heart of the forest, where he knew Chris was.

        He was going to find Chris.

        And this time, he wasn't going to run away.

* * *

"Chris?" AJ opened his eyes, feeling his eyelids incredibly heavy. His head hurt, his body hurt… and he could feel a weight oppressing his chest. Although things were blurry, like if he had been asleep for a long time, he could make out Chris's spiky hair, resting against the sheet that covered his own body.

        AJ thought he was dreaming.

        Until he noticed that Chris wasn't moving at all.