Title: A Once In A Lifetime Love 3/? Author Stephanie M Pairing: Lance/AJ
Justin looked at the couple, unwilling to believe what he was seeing. He was angry and jealous; Lance should be his and AJ kissing him. As he stared, Justin vowed to make Lance see that AJ was the wrong person for him. Justin wanted Lance, and would do anything and everything within his power to get his friend. He was sure that Lance only needed someone to explain how bad AJ was for him, and he would leave the Backstreet Boy. Justin felt sure that only one good enough for Lance was him.
"Maybe we should leave them alone." Kevin suggested, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment.
"Yeah, Kev and I are going to go and tell the doctor where AJ is." Joey said as he gave Kevin a flirtatious grin.
Kevin just stared at Joey, then grinned back. He had to admit Joey was certainly attractive, and had always come across as a decent guy. Kevin simply smiled and started walking down the corridor with Joey.
"I've got to get out of here. I'll see you later." Howie said as he quickly walked away from the room, Nick trailing after him.
"Want to call Lance's mom? She's bound to be worried if she caught the news." JC said as he spied the look on Justin's face, confused at the jealous look in Justin's eyes.
"Yeah, I promised I'd call when we found out what happened." Justin said as he walked down the corridor, leaving JC to stare after him before running to catch up with him.
Brian looked at Chris and could see that the other man was desperate for something to do, something he could understand. Smiling at the worried Chris, Brian said, "Want to go and talk? We need to think of something to tell the fans."
"Yeah. Did you know about Lance and AJ?" Chris asked as the pair walked away from the room, talking quietly.
"No. I knew AJ met someone about two years ago, but because he never said anything I figured they had broken up."
"I can't believe I didn't know about them. I mean, what kind of friend am I?" Chris said half to himself.
"None of us knew. I don't know about Lance but when AJ wants to keep a secret, no one ever finds out at least from him." Brian said, stopping Chris so that the other man could see the sincerity of his words. ******* "Excuse me, but I need to talk to Mr Bass alone." A stern looking doctor said as he woke the sleeping couple.
AJ looked at him for a few seconds, not knowing where he was. Then all the images of the previous day flashed into his mind, on instinct he turned to look at Lance. Seeing his boyfriend was okay, he looked back at the doctor and realised he was in bed with Lance. His heart and mind knew that was where he belonged, but he figured it probably wasn't a good way to keep their relationship a secret.
"Okay, I'll just wake him up." AJ said briefly glancing at the doctor. Turning back to Lance, he gently ran his hands through the blonde hair. "James, babe. Time to get up."
Lance simply muttered and arched into AJ's fingers, the doctor narrowed his eyes at his patients' response. Lance Bass wasn't acting how he expected someone had just experienced major trauma to act, but he could see that AJ was good for Lance.
"Come on, wake up baby. Someone needs to talk to you." AJ said, flashing the doctor an embarrassed grin.
"No, comfy. Tell them to come back later." Lance complained as he nestled into AJ's arms.
"James, we need to talk." AJ said, jumping a little when Lance froze completely.
"What's wrong, love?" Lance said opening his eyes and looking at AJ. "You're not in pain, are you?" Lance said worriedly as he searched AJ's face.
"I asked him to wake you up. I need to talk to you alone." The doctor said to Lance, only briefly looking at AJ.
"Anything you want to say to me, you can tell Alex. He's my next of kin; we filled in all the paperwork. You want me to get someone to get the papers from the hotel?" Lance said as he glared at the doctor.
"No, that's quite alright. My name is Doctor Luc Merchant; I'm the head of neurology. I've looked over your file and have some questions to ask you." Seeing Lance's nod he continued, "What's your full name and the name of the man beside you?"
"My name is James Lance Bass and the man beside me is my partner Alexander James McLean." Lance replied quickly.
"Who's the President of the USA? What year is this?" Dr Merchant said, writing notes on his chart.
"Bush is the President and its 2001." Lance said, wondering how long this was going to continue.
"What's your job?" Dr Merchant asked, his voice revealing nothing.
"I'm a singer in a music group." Lance replied with a wide grin.
"Do you recognise the pictures of these four men?" The doctor asked as he placed pictures of the other four members of Nysnc on the bed.
"That's Joey, Kevin introduced me to him a couple of hours ago. I don't know any of the others." Lance said, not noticing the look of alarm on AJ's face.
"Do you recognise these four?" Dr Merchant asked this time placing pictures of the other four Backstreet Boys on the bed.
"Of course I do. How could I forget the members of my own group? That's Nick, Brian, Howie and Kevin. They are in the Backstreet Boys with me and AJ." Lance said with a small laugh.
"What year did you join the Backstreet Boys?" Dr Merchant asked calmly.
"1996, after my old voice coach recommended me." Lance replied, a little annoyed at all the questions.
Dr Merchant looked at Lance as he said, "Can you tell me the names of your immediate family?"
"My parents are Diane and Jim Bass, I have one sister called Stacy." Lance said sounding tired.
"I'll let you sleep. I'll look over the notes and tell you what I find later." Doctor Merchant said a calm look on his face.
"I'm just going to call your mom, why don't you go to sleep? I'll be back in a second, babe." AJ said tenderly as he walked out the room seconds after the doctor left.
"Okay, but don't be gone too long." Lance replied as he closed his eyes. ******* "Doc, what's wrong with him? His memories are all screwed up about Nsync but he remembers everything else." AJ asked as he caught up with the doctor at the nurse's station.
"Mr Bass has a type of amnesia; it's fairly common after a trauma. With this type of amnesia the patient normally only has a gap within one area of their memory and the memory they retain can be distorted. In this case he has forgotten he was a member of Nsync and those members. As far as I can tell he remembers his career in music but he simply thinks he joined the Backstreet Boys instead." The doctor said quietly after making sure the coast was clear.
"Will his memories return? How can I help him?" AJ asked desperate to do something, anything to help the man he loved.
"The memories may never return but you should spend time with him and so should the members of Nsync, sometimes familiar faces and places help people to remember." The doctor said seconds before his pager beeped, flashing AJ an apologetic grin, he ran towards the elevator. ******* "Mrs Bass, I'm at the hospital. It turns out the news was right, Lance was in an accident." Justin said into the phone, hearing Diane Bass gasp he continued; "The doc seems to think Lance is going to be okay but he'll have to stay in the hospital for a couple of days."
"Thanks for telling me Justin, I'm going to book a flight and come up to take care of my son." Diane Bass said, making it clear that there would be no discussion.
"Okay, I'll tell the others." Justin said as Diane Bass ended the call, already thinking about arrangements that had to be made.
"How did she sound?" JC asked Justin, seeing the worried look in Justin's eyes.
"She sounded okay, a little worried. She's going to get the next flight here and take care of Lance." Justin replied with a grin; he knew Lance would love having his mother with him.
"Did you tell her that Lance has lost his memory?" JC asked, noticing the guilty look on Justin's face; he already knew the answer.
"No, I just couldn't tell her something like that through the phone." Justin defended himself.
"Want to go and get something to eat?" JC offered, knowing that they couldn't do anything to help Lance.
"Sure, but I don't want to talk to AJ, okay?" Justin replied hotly, hissing out AJ's name. He didn't notice the look of enlightenment on JC's face as they walked down the hall.
Ten minutes after they left the secluded relatives room, AJ walked in. Picking up the phone he dialled a number from memory; hoping that he wouldn't have to be away from Lance too long.
"Diane, it's AJ. I'm at the hospital with James, we were in a crash." AJ said as he heard the familiar sound of Diane Bass's voice.
"I know son, Justin called me. How are you, really?" Diane Bass said her voice comforting and soft.
"Not too good. James has amnesia; he thinks he's a member of Backstreet and can't remember any of Nsync. He got both his legs broke and his spleen was ruptured. The doctor said that the best thing is to have familiar faces." AJ answered, his voice full of fear and pain.
"Now that you've told me about Lance, tell me how you are. I'm going to come and care of you and Lance, I'll be there by tomorrow morning. Don't worry about coming to pick me up, I'll meet you at the hospital."
"I'm okay now that I know Lance is alive. When I woke up no one would tell me anything, Kevin looked in on him for me. He guessed who I meant when I was asking for James, I haven't told the others. I just need someone to hold me and let me know that everything is going to be okay." AJ said crying into the phone.
"It'll be okay, Alex. Where you hurt in the crash?" Diane asked, shocked that AJ was moving around.
"I was stabbed in the stomach; I'm not supposed to be out of bed yet but I sneaked out to see James. I was just so scared that he was really dead and no one was telling me the truth. James was hurt the worse, because the car hit his side. I wish it was me that was hurt."
"Don't talk like that. I'm coming to take care of you, I'll be there soon." Diane Bass said, praying that God would let them all come through the latest crisis.
"Thanks mom. I'll see you later, love you." AJ said as he ended the call. ******* "Howie, should we tell them?" Nick asked quietly, looking around the cafeteria.
"Not yet, wait until everything has settled down a little. We should go and see how Lance is doing." Howie replied his voice full of worry.
The pair looked up as they felt someone approach, seeing Brian and Chris they relaxed and smiled at their friends. The four friends sat in silence to worried about Lance and AJ to make small talk.
"Do you mind if we join you?" Justin asked cockily.
"The more the merrier, have you heard anything about Lance?" Nick answered willing to forget everything that had happened between them.
"No, but we're going to see Lance soon." JC answered, taking a drink from his can of Pepsi.
"They probably won't appreciate the interruption, we should let them have some time alone." Joey said as he and Kevin sat down, making them all the jump.
"They need each other right now, more than we can probably imagine." Kevin said, smiling as Joey gripped his hand under the table.
"Lance doesn't need AJ. What he needs is his friends, that means us!" Justin shouted, thankfully there were very few people in the room with them.
"Yeah, but he also needs the person he loves." Brian said hotly, knowing that it would probably do more harm than good of they tried to separate Lance and AJ.
"Let's just go up and see how they are doing." Brian said determinedly.
The eight quickly stood and walked towards the elevators; not noticing the confused stares. The ride up to their friend's floor was done in complete silence; each one taking the time to try and organise their thoughts. ******* "What are they doing in the same room!?" Justin said in confusion as he saw that Lance and AJ were lying next to each other in two separate beds. He couldn't believe that the hospital was allowing this.
"Would you calm down? I don't care who you are, if you disturb my patients I'll have you banned from this hospital." Dr Elise Smith said as she walked over, her face full of anger.
"They are in the same room because their medical records state that they are in effect married. It helps if the significant other is placed in the same room, that way they don't spend their whole time trying to sneak into each other's rooms; as I believe happened earlier. It was stated in their medical records that if they were both injured they were to be placed in the same room; and I for one respect my patients' wishes." Dr Smith said calmly, glaring at each one.
"Is it okay if we talk to them?" Howie asked looking over at the couple.
"No it is not. They were both in severe pain; I gave them medication to help with the pain and to help them sleep. Come back in the morning; and if it's not too much trouble, get rid of the press."
"Can you tell them we were here?" Joey said with a smile.
The doctor just nodded and waited for them to leave. As they rode the elevator down to the car park Kevin thought over the very unusual events that had occurred. Kevin couldn't help but feel a little envious of the pair, they seemed so happy together. When he had spoken to them; their first concern had been for the other. Looking at Joey, Kevin wondered if this time he might have found the man for him.