Justin sat at the kitchen table, his eyes glued on the phones in front of
him. His cell phone was on his right, the house phone on his left. Every so
often, he’d pick up the receiver of the house phone and place it next to his
ear, making sure it was still working. Alternately, he picked up his cell phone,
checking to see if the battery was still full. Justin looked up quickly at the
clock on the wall, then back to the phones. It was three o’clock in the
morning.
And JC had been gone for 12 hours.
Why had he run? That question had been going through Justin’s mind ever since
the afternoon. JC had done something so extraordinary, so mind boggling, but
then had run away, as if he were…what? Scared? Embarrassed? Justin didn’t
know. All he knew was that JC, the man he loved more than life, the other half
of himself, was in some kind of trouble, and Justin couldn’t help. It was a
frustrating situation, to say the least.
Justin had called everywhere he could think of. He’d called Roy and Karen in
Chicago, but there had been no answer. He’d called Tyler in LA, and asked
JC’s brother to call him if JC contacted him. He’d even called Heather at
school, asking her the same thing. There were also calls out to Tony, Dale, even
Bobbie. But so far, no one had heard from JC. Justin glanced at the clock again.
JC had been gone for 12 hours, 15 minutes.
Justin ran his hands over his face, rubbing his tired eyes, but his movements
paused when he heard a sound from outside the kitchen. His spirits soared,
thinking it might be JC, and ran to the kitchen door only to stop short when he
heard unfamiliar voices.
“I don’t think he’s here, Logan.” A woman’s voice.
“No, but someone is.” A man this time.
Justin quickly moved to the other side of the kitchen and grabbed one of JC’s
fancy cooking knives from the block, then approached the door again, pushing it
open and confronting the intruders.
He found a woman and man standing in his living room. Both were dressed in black.
The woman was beautiful, with long reddish hair. The man looked dangerous to
Justin. His eyes were black and penetrating, his hair long, his face almost
covered by sideburns.
The man turned to the woman and gave a sardonic smile. “Told you.”
The woman shook her head. “He’s not the one we want.”
“Who are you?” Justin asked. “What are you doing in my house, and who is
it you want?”
“My name is Jean Gray.” The woman’s eyes flicked to the knife Justin was
holding. “This is Logan,” she continued, indicating the man next to her.
“We’re looking for JC Chasez.”
“What for?” Justin asked, tapping the knife against his leg. Inside, he was
scared to death, but called on all the courage he could muster to confront them.
JC was missing, and these people wanted him, and none of it made sense.
“We want to help him,” Jean said, coming to stand next to the man, Logan.
“Our employer thinks JC can use our assistance, and we wanted to offer our
help.”
“Help with what?” Justin insisted. “Why would he want to help JC? I’m
gonna need a bit more explanation before I tell you where he is.”
Logan laughed. “You don’t know where he is, do you?”
Jean took a step forward. “We don’t mean any harm, Justin.”
Justin blinked. “How do know my name?”
Logan and Jean exchanged a glance. “We know you’re Justin Timberlake, and
that you and JC are…”
“Lovers,” Justin said simply.
“Yes,” Jean agreed. “But there’s more than you may know, Justin. Have
you noticed anything about JC lately? Has he been acting differently?”
Justin remained quiet.
“He doesn’t know anything,” Logan scoffed.
“I know you two had better leave my house,” Justin ordered.
“Or what?” Logan countered. “Look, kid, we’re trying to help your guy,
okay? From what Professor X told us, he has no idea what’s going on inside him,
and that’s a scary thing to happen.”
“And exactly what is he going through?” Justin asked.
“Logan, no,” Jean said, but was ignored.
“He a mutant, kid.” Logan walked forward and stopped directly in front of
Justin. The two men were of a similar height, and Justin was proud when he
didn’t flinch at his approach. “His mutant abilities are coming out, and
he’s not prepared to control them or even accept them.”
“Mutant?” Justin said. “Josh?” He shook his head. “I don’t
understand.”
Jean approached the two men and moved Logan away. “Justin, you’ve seen JC do
thing lately, haven’t you? Move things? I mean, move them with his mind?”
Justin remembered today, and how the stage piece had almost crushed Anthony.
Justin knew that somehow JC had been responsible for stopping it, but how did
they know?
“Because Professor Xavier has been monitoring his mutant activities.” Jean
answered his question, but hadn’t spoken. Justin’s eyes widened as he
realized her thoughts were in his head. “I’m a mutant, too, Justin,” the
words in his mind continued. “My gift is telepathy. We believe JC’s gift is
telekinesis.”
“Telekinesis?” Justin asked.
“The ability to move objects with thoughts,” Jean answered, this time out
loud.
“We’re wasting time, Jean” Logan complained. “He doesn’t know where
Chasez is, so let’s just get back to the school, and when Professor X finds
him again, we’ll go after him. If Chasez’s still alive, we’ll find him
that way.”
“Still alive?” Justin demanded. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Justin,” Jean said. “Do you have any idea where JC might have gone?”
Justin was quiet for a moment, thinking of what Jean had told him, wondering for
a bit just where JC would go. He was in trouble, scared and alone. So scared, he
couldn’t come to Justin. So where would he go? Justin knew the only place, the
only people, he could go to besides himself.
“Yes, I do,” Justin finally said.
He awoke in a room he didn’t know, with lights shining in his eyes and
his arms strapped down. JC lifted his head off the bed and looked down. There
were belts tied across his chest, legs and arm. He pulled against the bonds,
twisting and trying to remove himself from their hold. He struggled to free
himself, then relaxed. He closed his eyes, concentrating his mind on releasing
the fastening.
Nothing happened.
“There’s a dampening field in this room,” a voice called out. “You
can’t use your powers in here.”
JC’s head whipped around, trying to locate that voice, and finally spied a
woman standing to the left of the bed he was on. She wasn’t looking at him,
but instead was writing on a clipboard. “Where am I?” JC asked. He struggled
again, pulling his bonds tight. “Who are you? Why am I here?”
He watched as the woman came closer to him, looking over his head at monitors
that were beeping above him. She reached up, flipped some switches, scribbled
again on her clipboard, then walked away. JC looked around as far as his
bindings would allow. There were others in the room, ignoring him as the woman
was. The room contained machines and other beds like his, only empty.
He decided to try again. “Why am I here?” He demanded. “What do you want
from me?” He could hear the panic that was creeping into his voice, and tried
to control it. But the events of the past few hours were causing more than panic
in JC. He remembered with hurt and devastation that his parents, his own family,
had called someone to take him away from his home. Their betrayal was a killing
blow to him, a hurt that was a physical pain in his heart and his mind. But
beyond his parents, JC knew there were people out there that would miss him, one
especially.
He watched as one of the people in the room approached his bed again. “He
needs to be asleep for the next experiment, right, doctor?” the man asked.
JC saw the woman shake her head. “No, we need him conscious for this,” she
said. “Flip the switch.”
The man reached up and touched the panel above JC’s head, making him scream as
the pain coursed through his body. When it stopped, JC was breathing hard, tears
leaking from his eyes. He watched with horror as the man lifted his hand to the
panel again. This time, JC cried out to the one person he needed most in the
world.
“JUSTIN!!”
Justin
awoke with a start. He’d heard his name being called so clearly, but when
looking around the small cabin of the plane, he knew not one of the people
aboard had said it. He closed his eyes for a moment, realizing it had been JC
calling to him. JC needing him.
A JC that was, despite the fears that had been running through Justin mind,
still alive.
He opened his eyes again to find Jean Gray watching him closely. “What is
it?” she asked.
“JC’s alive,” Justin said simply. “He…just…I don’t know…called
to me.”
Jean smiled slightly. “Has he ever done that before?’ she asked softly.
“No, not that I can remember,” Justin said a bit uneasily. “I mean, I
always know when he’s near, or if he’s looking for me, but I just thought it
was because, well, you know.”
“He might not have known he was doing it, Justin,” Jean explained. “From
what I understand about JC, his gifts are just now becoming apparent.”
“I still don’t understand all of this,” Justin said.
“We won’t know anything, really, until we find JC and talk to him,” Jean
said, looking up as Logan entered the cabin from the cockpit area. “We almost
there?” she asked.
He nodded. “Landing in ten minutes,” he said. “Buckle up.” Logan noticed
Justin looking at him with wary eyes. “What?”
“This whole mutant thing,” Justin said. “Is it pretty common? I mean, is
it from birth, or does someone just turn mutant?”
“Depends,” Logan said. “Jean, and others like her, and probably your
boyfriend, are mutants from birth. Others are created.”
“Which are you?” Justin asked. “I mean, Jean is telepathic. JC appears to
be.” He forgot the word.
“Telekinetic,” Logan said.
“Right, thanks,” Justin said. “So, what’s your gift?” he asked.
Justin’s eyes widened as the blades emerged from Logan’s hand, creating long
claws of razor sharp steel. “Awesome,” he breathed as the blades
disappeared.
“Buckle you seat belt, kid,” Logan ordered as the plane descended.