He's Probably Fine - Jacksepticeye Egos Fanfic

Chapter 7 - Welcome Back

Chase sat bolt upright in his bed, heart racing. He took a shuddering breath, and was relieved to feel nothing pressed against his throat. He pushed himself quickly to the side of his bed; there, he stared at the floor, chest heaving as he struggled to calm himself down.

Just a dream... just a dream... just a dream...

Chase groaned, burying his face in his hands.

You're ok, he told himself. You're ok.

He slowly glanced back at his bed, at the side where Stacy used to sleep. She used to help him through his nightmares. But that was a long time ago.

Chase sighed.

Well, now I feel worse, he decided, rubbing his eyes as he stood up. The dream hadn't shed a light on how to handle the livestream, only dimmed his hopes of getting through it without a catastrophe.

Chase shouldered his way through his bedroom door and stopped at the top of the stairs. "Breakfast?" he muttered. He pondered it for a moment, then carried on his way into the recording room.

"What's on the docket for today?" he muttered to himself, powering up his computer to check his calendar.

Chase scrolled through the upload schedule. He frowned.

"What?" he scowled. "Hello Neighbor is today? I didn't record... Where... where did..." Chase scoffed, shaking his head. He lifted his hands off the keyboard. "Where the fuck is Reigns? Today was Reigns, tomorrow is SuperHot..." He went on scrolling again, searching through the calendar for the games he was looking for. "Tomorrow is..."

Chase paused. "Tomorrow is December 19th..."

"No, no it's not," he said, louder. "The livestream isn't for another week yet. Fuck-"

Frustrated, Chase started digging through his video files for the episode of Reigns he had planned to upload. 

"What... what the hell..." he muttered, scrolling through the files. The Reigns video was there. So was SuperHot, Kingdoms & Castles, The Last Guardian VR, and a bunch of others.

Chase's mind was reeling. In a haze, he opened YouTube, logged into Jack's account, and looked at the videos posted.

"Oh...no..."

It was December 18th. The holiday special was over, and there were two 4-hour livestream videos on Jack's channel to prove it. Chase clicked on the first one and let it play, though he wasn't really watching.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Chase heard his phone ring. Jackie's face appeared under the caller ID. Chase picked it up.

"Hello?" he said, hoarsely.

"Chase Brody! The man of the hour!" Jackie crowed. "Hey, you didn't pick up your phone when I called last night, but congrats on the stream! You did a hell of a good job," Jackie said. "Just like I knew you would!"

Chase's voice caught in his throat. Onscreen, someone pretended to be him, pretending to be Jack, which was really just a stage name for Seán. And Chase couldn't tell the difference.

"Chase, you hearing me ok?" Jackie added. "I said, you did great on the livestream!"

Chase curled his trembling hands into fists.

"Tha... that wasn't me, Jackie."