It took a bit longer, but the horsemen were back in America. This time they were living in California. They chose somewhere they could fit in, and not have anyone notice. Sacramento was a good fit for this, the only issue Merritt had was that it was, "Too damn hot" in the summer. Jack had laughed and told him, "You should see Arizona."

By the time they got settled into their new place- they chose a house on the edge of the city, Jack's hand was out of the cast. While living there, they got cars. Jack and Merritt shared one, they had a mustang. Danny had a Honda Civic, and Lula had a Toyota Corolla. Dylan had a BMW 325i. It was very nice, and no one was allowed to touch it. The Mustang and the BMW were always parked in the garage to keep them safe but also away from prying eyes. Luckily the house was on a piece of land, with the neighbors not too close.

Jack and Danny had separate rooms despite them always sharing a bed when it came to them sleeping. Both guys deiced that there were times when they needed their space and own room to calm down some days.

The house it's self was a two story. The kitchen was big enough to cook for a lot of people, and had a lot of counter space. To avoid issues, the eye chose their bedrooms for them. Dylan got the master. The Master room was on the top floor at the end of a hallway. The other two rooms on that floor went to Jack and Danny. Lula and Merritt had bedrooms on the first floor. Merritt claimed he was okay with it because he was old, and his knees weren't the same as before. Lula didn't have to say it, but she was glad to be distanced from Jack. She was embarrassed that she had flirted with him and tried so hard to get him to like her, also she didn't want to hear them having sex, if they ever did do it.

Jack liked that he was on the second floor, and able to crawl up onto the roof. His left hand didn't have the strength yet, so he hadn't gone up yet but he planned to. It was hard on him, definitely harder than he led on. He knew he had to rebuild the strength slowly, but he wanted it now. No one knew that he was still drinking quite a bit- no one saw. They also hadn't seen how much he'd been smoking lately. He was almost always high or drunk whenever Danny wasn't around. Being sober was harder. Jack knew however that someone was bound to notice, and so he became extra careful. He'd stash the alcohol places like in his dresser, or in his closet under his coats- basically anywhere no one would look.

Danny had this schedule, where every Tuesday he would go out and be out all day. He never said where he was going, and no one asked. He'd leave early and return late. So since Danny wasn't there, Jack would wait until about noon when all the others had left, and he'd go out on the property and get really really high. He'd then return to his room, where he'd get frustrated at his hand, or his emotions being all over the place, and then drink. By the time the bottle was finished, he was beyond faded, and passed out on the floor.

Tuesday was no different, only Jack was out of alcohol already- He hadn't gone out and gotten anymore in a few days since Merritt had the car. So he went out and he got really, really stoned. When he got back to his room, he put on some music and laid there for a long time. His phone was somewhere, but he didn't know where, and he didn't want to move to see what time it was. So when Danny came in, and stood there looking down at him, all Jack could think was, "Oh shit."

When Danny got home, he was earlier than usual, way earlier. It was nearly 3 in the afternoon. All the cars were gone, so he figured that everyone was gone, or that either Merritt or Jack was here unless the two went out together. Seeing that Merritt was gone, he knew Jack was likely to be here. Going upstairs, he heard music on in Jack's room. Knocking on the door, he got no answer. Walking in, he saw Jack laying on the floor.

"hey." Danny said as he turned down the music.

"Hey." Jack replied. He knew he was in deep shit if Danny realized he was high.

"What are you doing on the floor?"

"Relaxing."

"Right..." Danny said.

"where were you?"

"Out."

"that's nice." Jack said rather flatly.

"yeah....are you ok? you seem off."

"'m great, never better. just laying here chilling, because that's what i do on Tuesdays." Jack replied.

Danny sat on the floor beside him. Jack who felt like he was floating, but also on a boat, wanted to sleep. He curled up, using his arm as a pillow and fell asleep. Danny just watched, he didn't know what to say. After a few minutes, he slowly untangled Jack and got him into his bed, and pulled the covers up on him. As he turned to leave, Jack mumbled in his sleep, "'tay." Which was his attempt to say, stay. Kicking his shoes off, Danny sighed to himself and got into bed with him. The moment he was next to him, Jack curled up into Danny and was out cold.

As he laid there beside his boyfriend, he was wondering why Jack was off, and why he fell asleep mid conversation. As Jack curled up into him closer, he smelt his cologne but also the smell of weed. Sighing to himself, he put it together and saw that Jack was higher than a kite. Rather than say something and start a fight when he woke up, Danny decided that he would talk to Dylan and Merritt before confronting Jack about it. He didn't have a problem with it per say, but he didn't want Jack to be abusing it, and wasting away.

Jack had rolled over, and his shirt had moved, showing his back. Danny noticed that Jack's spine stuck out a huge amount and realized how sick Jack was. He remembered how when he moved Jack, he seemed really light, too light. He then remembered the argument Jack had with the doctor over the feeding tube, how he didn't want it. As he lay there, he realized that Jack had a problem, and Danny had no way to wrap his head around it.