Title: Hidden Danger

Author: Black_Wingedbird

Rating: PG (Mild language and drug addiction)

Author's Note: My first Nsync Fanfic. Bear with me until I get the hang of this. Warning: I'll tell you now, these are gonna be mostly about Chris, include NO girlfriends, and be full of angst.

"Well, it's almost time," J.C. announced as they were finishing getting dressed. In ten minutes, Nsync was going to do a show. The sixth performance, actually. The guys loved performing, but the hectic schedule was starting to take its toll, even on the hyper Chris.

"Let's go find a place to play," Lance said in his sight twang. He was referring to the sacred game of Hackey Sack they played before every concert.

"Hold up!" Chris yelled from the bathroom. "I'm not ready yet!"

"I'm not either!" Justin shouted from the closet.

"How did I figure that, Chris?" Joey shouted back. Chris was usually the last one to be ready; forgetting stuff all the time.

"Well, we'll go and wait for you guys, OK?" asked J.C.

"That's fine!" Chris called as something crashed to the floor. "Shit!"

"What was that?" J.C. asked as he grabbed the small, bean filled ball.

"Nothing!" Chris called back through the closed bathroom door.

Joey and Lance rolled their eyes as J.C. said, "Well hurry up, would ya?" The three then turned and left, leaving Chris and Justin to finish getting ready.

A few minutes later, they both emerged. Chris was wearing his green jersey; Justin was in his blue one. They both had the number five on the back and were wearing white tear-away pants.

"You ready?" Justin asked.

"Yeah," Chris said as they headed for the door. "Oh, wait," he said, stopping. He turned and hurried back to the bathroom.

"What now?" Justin groaned, turning to see what his older friend had forgotten now. He watched as Chris reached into the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red pills. He popped one in his mouth and got a drink from the faucet, his braids falling in the sink. "What was that?" Justin asked as Chris put the bottle back.

"What? Oh, the pills? They're an herbal energy pill I got from GNC," Chris said as he headed for the door. "Why, you want one?"

"No, I don't want one, Chris," Justin said, moving in front of the door. "Why are you taking them? You've got more energy than the rest of us combined."

"Just to get through this schedule. I'm not super man, you know. That's Joey's department." Chris smiled, putting his hand on Justin's shoulder.

"Promise you'll stop?" Justin asked, considering his friend's statement.

"As soon as tour's over," Chris relied, smiling.

"OK," Justin sighed. "Let's go," he continued, reluctantly returning the smile. Then the two friends headed out to find the rest of the group.
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

After a wild game of Hackey sack (thanks to the hyper Chris), the group headed backstage to wait. They all were excited, as they usually were before a performance. The place was packed, but that was normal to them.

"Everyone ready?" J.C. asked as they crouched behind the curtain leading on stage.

"Ready," Joey replied.

"Yup," Lance said.

"Of course," Justin added.

"Chris?" J.C. asked, not turning around. The rest of the group turned to see Chris skipping around, talking to all the stagehands.

"Chris!" Joey yelled. Big Mistake.

The girls raised the noise volume five decimals. As Chris came bouncing over, the announcer was left with no choice but to bring out Nsync. "...And here's Nsync!"

"Let's go," J.C. said to the group. They could only see his mouth moving; the crowd was too loud for them to be heard with out the mics.

They all pushed past the curtain and ran out on stage. They ran back and forth, prepping the audience and causing an explosion of screams.

The concert went smoothly, and the audience ate it up. When the end came, the girls screamed for more. The stage was dark and backstage, the guys debated on whether to go back out. They were drenched in sweat and exhausted, but Chris was still bouncing on his heels as he persuaded his friends to go back out and sing 'I want you back' one more time.

"I don't know how you do it," Lance mumbled as they ran back out.

After the last energetic song, they ended for good. They headed back to the tour bus; the night almost turned to day by screaming girl's cameras flashes. They normally would take time to bond with the fans, except they had to hit the road to get to the next city on time. Cameras continued to flash, even as the bus pulled away.

"That was one of our best concerts!" Justin panted. Everyone gave a tired nod in agreement.

"Who's up for a game of go fish?" Chris asked as he dug through his things.

"I'm gonna go to bed," Joey said, heading back the small hallway with the small beds on the sides.

"Me too," J.C. yawned as he followed Joey.

"Yeah, goodnight," Lance said.

"Goodnight Chris," Justin added as he made his way to his bed.

"OK, I'll just play by myself then," Chris said as he pulled out the deck of cards.

As the rest of the guys laid down and attempted to sleep, Justin sat on the edge of his small bed watching Chris.

Chris delt two hands and took a seat on one side of the table. Picking up the cards and arranging them, he looked up to his invisible partner and asked, "Got any threes?"

He set the cards down and moved to the other side of the table. He picked up the second hand and arranged them, shaking his head, he answered, "No. Go fish."

Chris jumped up and went back to the other side of the table. He picked up his first hand and rolled his eyes as he reached down and drew a card from the pile. He filled that one in with the others and laid them down and moved to the other side of the table.

Smiling, he picked up his cards and asked, "Got any eight's?"

Chris moved back to the other side and looked through his cards. "I got two," he said, sliding them across the table.

Justin smiled, even though he was worried for his friend. 'Those pills must be pretty strong,' he thought.' At this rate, he'll never get to sleep,' he thought as he lay down and listened.

After a few more minutes of his game, Chris said to himself, "Man, I'm so wired, I'll never get to sleep! Good thing I got these," he said quietly as he pulled out a bottle of sleeping pills from his duffel bag. He popped two in his mouth and swallowed them as he continued with his game.

Justin listened as Chris took more pills, getting more worried. He may be younger, but he knew taking those herbal energy pills wasn't always safe. Justin lay awake for a few more minutes, listening to Chris continue his solitary game of go fish. After a few minutes, he heard Chris slow his speech and eventually heard Chris's head hit the table. Justin rolled over and looked back the narrow to Chris, who was sleeping with his head on a pile of cards on the table. Justin smiled sleepily as he rolled back over and finally went to sleep.

~o0O0o~

The next morning, the guys were still on the road. They were about an hour away from their destination, Kansas City. The guys were all awake, except Chris, who still sat slumped over the small table, braids hiding his face.

Each of the guys weakly poked him on their way to the small bathroom to dress. Chris remained asleep, not stirring once. When they were all ready to meet the day, they gathered around Chris, teasing at his expense.

"Watch this guys," Joey said as he ran into the bathroom. He plugged up the sink and turned on the water. Then he quickly added some liquid soap and watched as the sink filled with bubbles. He turned the water off and scooped up a handful of bubbles as he ran back to his friends.

Carefully, he arranged the bubbles in a pile on Chris's head. The guys snickered as Chris turned his head, but remained asleep.

"Ha!" Lance laughed, "Okay, my turn!" He ran to his bed, where his duffel bag was, and got some Crayola markers. As he handed one to Joey, Justin, and J.C., he explained, "We each have to draw a big spot on his face. Whoever wakes him up takes the blame for all of it."

"Okay, hot shot, you first," challenged J.C.

"Watch and learn," Lance whispered as he pulled the cap off his blue marker. He knelt down, inches from Chris's face. Very slowly and carefully, he began to draw a spot on Chris's nose. It got bigger and bigger, until it was about an inch in diameter, covering his nose.

Standing up, Lance asked, "Okay, who's next?"

"I'll do it," Joey stated, pulling the cap off his red marker. He knelt down where Lance had been and began to draw a spot on his sleeping friend's forehead. He matched the size of Lance's spot and stepped back, smiling. "Mission accomplished. Next?"

"Okay, okay, I'll do it," J.C. volunteered. He successfully performed the task with his green marker. Chris still slept.

Then the three turned to Justin, expectantly. He smiled and held up his purple marker. He knelt down and carefully made a spot on Chris's cheek, above J.C.'s green spot. Justin barely got his marker capped and stood up, when Chris opened his eyes.

"What are you guys doing?" Chris asked groggily as he sat up and looked around. "God, my neck is stiff. Was I here all night?"

"Uh, yeah, you were. We've been trying to wake you up," Joey said as the guilty four tried not to smile.

"Are we there?" Chris asked as he began to rub his neck. Looking at the table, he spotted some bubbles. Then he felt them running down his braids onto his hand. "What the-?!"

The others remained where they were as Chris jumped up and ran to the bathroom. "Ahh! What the hell happened to me?"

The others burst out laughing as Chris examined himself in the mirror. "It washes off, don't worry," Lance called in between breaths.

"Thank God!" Chris called back to them. As he shut the door and began to wash his face, the others turned on the TV and settled on VH1's pop up videos. As Chris dried off his face, he finally heard their laughter die down. As he emerged from the bathroom and went to gather clean clothes, he said, "You guys shouldn't have done that."

"And why's that?" Lance asked as their older friend headed back to the bathroom with clean clothes.

"Let's put it this way," Chris said as he paused at the doorway. The spots were still visible, even from where the others sat. "Don't go to sleep tonight!" he said, smiling. With that, he went into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

Joey, Lance, J.C., and Justin all exchanged nervous glances, afraid of what their creative friend would dream up.

"What have we created?" J.C. asked.

~o0O0o~

After Chris was done getting ready, he took another one of his energy pills and headed out to see the rest of the group.

Together they watched cartoons until they arrived at Kansas City. Most of their laughter was caused by quick glances at Chris's spotted face. Chris, on the other hand, was so hyper, he wasn't sure what he was laughing at.

They all stepped out in the fresh air at Sandstone Amphitheater, just outside of Kansas City. A quick rehearsal and they would be free to roam the city. As the band set up, the guys played quick of HORSE, using a temporary suction cup backboard stuck to a wall behind the stage.

The game went smoothly, until Chris got the hands on the ball. No one else got it ran after that; Chris seemed to be all over the 'court' at once. Just as the others were about to call it quits, they were called on stage. Chris dropped the ball and flew past his friends, beating them on stage.

"Is that the same guy who was as good as dead this morning?" J.C. grumbled to the others as they trotted after their friend.

In his haste to get to the stage, Chris accidentally knocked one of the drummer's symbols. He apologized and quickly set it back up as his friends joined him on stage.

"OK, lets go!" Chris said in to the Mic. The others barley got into their positions when they started 'Tearin' up my heart.'

Halfway through the dance, Chris broke formation and began to skip back and forth across the stage, doing his own thing. The other members glanced at each other, confused, but kept going with the routine.

When the song was over, Chris stopped and raised his hand to his head. He looked around, confused, as J.C. mumbled, "That makes all of us." Then he yelled to Chris, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I, uh, just need to take a little break-" Chris said between deep breaths. Joey stepped forward, walked over to Chris and put his hand on his back. "You sure-" he started.

Suddenly, Chris spun around, growling, "I said I'm fine!" His fist connected with Joey's jaw and Joey stumbled back as the others ran forward. "'I'm fine, man!" Chris continued walking to the edge of the stage as Joey rubbed his jaw, stunned. "See?" Chris asked, as he turned to the empty stadium. "If I jump, they'll catch me-" Chris hallucinated.

Realizing his intentions, J.C. and Lance ran forward and caught the older member as he passed out, inches from the four-foot stage drop.

~o0O0o~

"Too much energy?" J.C. questioned the doctor as he finished checking Chris. They were in the dressing room, after Joey and Lance carried Chris inside and laid him on the couch in their dressing room. J.C. had called the doctor and he arrived as Chris was regaining conciseness.

After discovering no heat exhaustion was present, the doctor had asked if Chris was on medication. They all shook their heads, except Justin.

He's taking some kind of herbal energy pill," Justin had admitted.

This had come as a shock for Joey, Lance, and J.C., but made perfect sense to the doctor. He explained that the combination of caffeine, Ginkgo Biloba, and adrenaline produced a dangerous level of energy. The body, not knowing what to do with it, shuts down.

"In a sense, yes," the doctor answered J.C.

"Wow," J.C. admitted.

"I still think this is my fault," Justin said, his head down. "I knew he was taking them."

"Don't blame yourself," Chris smiled weakly. "It was my own dumb fault."

"What should we do for him?" Lance asked.

"All he needs now is sleep. He should be back to normal in no time."

"Great," Joey teased, catching Chris's attention.

Chris looked sleepily at Joey and noticed the bruised jaw. "I'm so sorry man. I swear, it'll never happen again," he apologized.

"Don't worry about it, buddy," Joey said, putting a hand on Chris's shoulder. Chris managed a small smile before he fell into a much-needed sleep.

"Will he be able to perform tonight?" Joey asked softly.

"He should," the doctor replied. "Just keep him away from caffeine for awhile."

"Deal," J.C. said, standing with the doctor. "And honestly, I hope I never see you again."

"Same here," the doctor said, smiling. He then left the room and headed back to the hospital.

~o0O0o~

Later that night...

They were all exhausted from the energetic concert, this time performed only on adrenaline.

Four members of the band slept soundly as the oldest member quietly drew strips and zigzags on the faces of his friends.

'I'll never live to sing again,' he thought as a big smile spread over him.

Finnis

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