04

James' eyes fluttered. It took him a couple of minutes to be able to open his eyes completely, he was so tired. He knew that he was in the hospital, the bed wasn't comfortable in the slightest, and he wasn't lying against his silk pillow case so it wouldn't damage his hair. He could already feel his hair breaking.

Yeah, that was his first concern, whether or not his hair was being treated properly.

His second thought was that his stomach hurt and itched like crazy. James slowly lifted his arms; the first time he tried they dropped to his sides almost immediately. The second time, they were up for a few seconds before they dropped. The anesthesia was slowly wearing off. He finally was able to move his arms to hold them above his head. He had an IV in one arm and a pulse oximeter on his finger.

"I must be around Logan too much," he said to himself, his voice croaking with the effort.

James placed his hands on his stomach, leaving them there for a moment before slowly sliding them under the blankets on his bed. He pulled up the hem of his hospital gown and ran his hand over his stomach, finding the bandage that was covering his stab wound. He could feel the stitches that were under it.

Everything came back to him then. The concert, the stage hand falling into him, him going out on stage, him feeling woozy, looking at the blood that was dripping onto the stage, and him blacking out. It all came crashing back so fast that he didn't know what to think. He was sure that it was an accident; no one would want to hurt him on purpose.

His eyes widened. Where are my friends?

As if he had asked that question out loud, the door opened and the next thing he knew, he was crushed in a hug so strong that only Carlos could give him. James laughed light and slowly dropped his arms loosely around Carlos' neck to hug him back. Kendall and Logan stood by the bed, waiting for Carlos to let their friend go so they could get a chance to hug him as well.

"What happened?" James asked as Kendall pulled away from him. Kendall exchanged glances with Logan and the two kept quiet. James recognized the look, quickly. It was the look that they gave each other when they didn't want to give James some bad news. "What's wrong?"

"James, you were stabbed." Carlos finally said quietly.

"W-what?"

Carlos carefully retold the story about what happened during the concert and James listened quietly. His mind was racing with a million thoughts. Who would want to hurt me like that? Are they sure it wasn't an accident? Do my Mom and Dad know? Are my friends ok? What's going to happen now? James reached his hands up to his face and was surprised to find that he was crying. He hastily wiped the tears away from his face, sucking in a deep, shuddery breath. The one thing that he didn't like was not knowing what was going to happen. It was fine when he was injured playing hockey, the doctor would tell him how long he had to stop exercising and then when he was cleared, he could start working out again. But now that he was stabbed, there were a lot of questions that he wasn't sure was ever going to be answered.

Would his attacker ever be caught? Did anyone else see what happened? Were there any witnesses? What would their fans say?

James opened his mouth to start asking those questions but stopped when Logan looked away from him, taking a deep breath. He then studied Carlos, who looked like he had been crying, that was normal. But he was scared when he looked at Kendall. The leader of the group of friends looked downright pissed, but he had been crying too. That was a dangerous combination. The last time James saw him that way, was when his father left. Kendall had been in somewhat of a depressive-angry state for a long time and had gotten in a lot of trouble due to acting out. So it must have been bad if he looked that way now.

"What?" James whispered.

"It's nothing that you need to worry about right now." Kendall said quickly.

"What?" James repeated. "What is it?" He suddenly sat up straight, his hazel eyes widening. "Did something happen to my Mom and Dad? Are they ok?"

"Relax," Logan placed a hand on James's shoulder and forced him to lie back down. "Your parents are fine, they and my parents and Carlos' parents are on their way here as we speak."

"Oh," James relaxed a little and looked over at Kendall. "Mama Knight and Katie? Are they ok?" Kendall nodded. "Then what is it? Are our friends ok? What about Gustavo and Kelly? Are they here?"

"Kelly is outside with my Mom," Kendall said slowly. He exchanged another glance with Logan. "They're trying to figure out when you can go home and what to do about the press. You've been here for a while." He added.

"I bet Gustavo wasn't happy when he heard about this," James said slowly, noticing his friends hadn't mentioned him. "How come he's not screaming at me?"

Carlos suddenly let out a whimper and turned away as he wiped at his eyes. Kendall sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Logan, knowing that James wasn't going to stop asking questions until he answered them, took a deep breath and put a brave face on before turning to face him completely. "Gustavo isn't coming." He said slowly. "Something happened to him."

"What?" James breathed. He knew in his heart, in his gut that something was wrong. "Logan, what happened?" Silence. "Logan, I swear to god, if you don't tell me, I won't be your friend anymore."

Kendall gave a hint of a smile at the childish threat.

"James," Logan sighed. "Gustavo is dead. He's…he's been murdered." James' eyes widened. "That's not the worst part," he added glumly. "We've…been framed for the crime. The police think we did it."

A/N: And now we see how James is doing as well as us getting to the point of the story. Sorry it's a short chapter, things will pick up in the next one.

Cheers,

-Riles