"Have you spoken with Dr. Westfall yet?" A voice on the other end of Dr. Fitzpatrick’s phone asked.
"Yes, he sees the importance of having the medical records...altered...albeit slightly, for our purposes."
"Good. I heard from Mercedes earlier today. What did you say to her? She thinks you totally attacked Lance Bass. Don’t you think you should have been more subtle?"
"After speaking to her today, do you actually think we have the time to act subtly? Mercedes is in love with that N SYNC member."
"We both know that Mercedes original diagnosis of schizophrenia was incorrect. Those hallucinations after the miscarriage were caused by the pills Liam gave her. She thinks she‘s still getting shots of Senetil every month...but they‘re placebos. If she had schizophrenia she would have gone over the edge by now."
"What are you saying, that my plan isn’t going to work?"
"Ooo, I think your plan will work alright. With some improvising." Dr. Fitzpatrick paused, "Now, I never did understand...why do you have it in for her?"
"Never mind my reasons. You should have taken care of this months ago. This has really gone too far. You should have never let her leave Fall Brook. You led me to believe that you thought that ghost stunt along with the placebo would work and that story about the dead lover...instead we had Lance Bass visiting her and now...according to Mercedes they’re ’in love’."
"Frankly, I expected her to do us both a favor and take matters into her own hands...if you catch my drift."
"You underestimate Mercedes’ spirit. That girl has always landed on her feet."
"When I think of that spirit, and everything that we have to crush it with...I wonder if you’re sure. Are you REALLY sure you want to go ahead with this?"
"Don’t start getting a conscience on me."
"Well, one thing’s for certain. Lance Bass is in for one hell of a ride."
"It‘ll almost be fun to watch. Liam used to call him his ‘goodie-goodie‘! Isn‘t that a piece of irony now."
"You know, he cried when he talked to me about that night with Mercedes. He obviously has deep feelings for her. I almost feel sorry..."
"Oh, stop it. He’ll find someone else. Whether it was now or later, what’s the difference? Hammer that home to Mercedes, pop rockers can’t be faithful."
"And Liam? What about that juicy piece of truth?"
"Who’s going to back up Lance’s claim? The rest of NSync? By the time they start backing up Lance’s story, the seeds will already be planted in Mercedes’ mind that Lance wanted Liam...and the baby...out of the way. Damn, I don’t know why she hasn’t mentioned those pills yet. She must have found them."
"Liam was so sure he had the perfect plan. Don’t you become over confident."
"Liam was an arrogant ass. But, at least he left enough ammunition for us to finish the job he failed to complete."
"Well, Dr. Westfall says she has an appt with him on the 30th."
"Not soon enough. Everything is set to unravel. It just can’t happen soon enough."
Mercedes crawls back onto the bed. Kisses the face that is barely visible from under the quilt. Lance opens one eye. "I didn’t want to leave before letting you know where I was going, Be. And when I’d be back."
Lance squints his eyes and rests up on his lbows, "Where are you going, Darlin’?"
"Mass. It’s Sunday."
"Oh." Lance sits up and rubs his face. "What time is it?"
That unruly look again...it’s enough to make her want to change her mind. "9:15"
Lance shook his head. "Oh." He looks over to her and tries to keep his eyes wide open. "What time’s Mass?"
"10. I should be back before 11:30. Get some more sleep, Be!"
"No, no. I’ll get up and come with you."
Mercedes face must have had a shocked expression because Lance asked, "Isn’t that okay?" as he whipped off the covers and headed to the bathroom to quickly shower.
"Yes, of course...I’m just...surprised, that’s all."
"You did tell Wes, right?"
Silence.
Lance stuck his head out of the bathroom, face partially covered with shaving cream, "You DID, didn’t you, Mercedes?"
She gave him an innocent look, as she quietly answered, "No."
Lance rested his head on the door frame, "Mercedes..."
"I’ll call him now." Mercedes said. Then she asks, "What was his room number?"
Lance shook his head and banged it on the door frame. "Baby, you’re killing me."
"How did we get so many people coming to services with us?" Lance asked in the car.
"Tim Miller is Catholic so he was going anyway. Mike is too, but he had to come." said Wes laughing.
"I didn’t think this would be such a production." Mercedes said quietly to Lance.
He put his arm around her, "You get used to it. I can’t have it any other way for you, not now. I’m afraid that fishing expedition of mine has made this all necessary."
"Now, Lance normally y’all don’t go to services unless you’re home. I’m here to tell you, I’ll whip your butt if we cause any hysteria this morning. I morally object to kids screaming for their favorite pop artist in a house of worship." Wes told him. "Notice I didn’t say ‘Bass Ass’."
"I appreciate that, Wes."
"Cause it’s Sunday."
Mercedes and Lance share a smile.
When Mercedes and Lance walk into the Church, she notices on the announcement board that the 10 am Mass is in Spanish.
"Oh. It’s in Spanish."
"I guess you’ll be almost as lost as me." Lance said with a grin and a wink. Wes was quietly pleased that the Mass was in Spanish, since he figured that would cut down on the amount of people who might recognize Lance.
There were a few stares, even a polite wave from a few teenagers sitting a few pews in front of them. During the ‘kiss of peace’ Mercedes hugged Lance and then more than the usual amount of people came over to shake his hand.
But, outside of that, no hysteria.
"I was proud of you Lance. You didn’t cause no scene in God’s House."
Lance smirked, "Thanks Wes. You know, I usually don’t TRY to cause any scenes when I’m out."
Lance was holding onto Mercedes’ hand, "Can I ask you a few questions?"
She smiled, "Of course."
"First of all, why doesn’t anyone SAY anything?"
"What do you mean? There’s all sorts of responses."
"Those are programmed, if you don’t mind me saying. Everyone is EXPECTED to say those things. You don’t have people, you know, spontaneously saying anything."
Mercedes laughed, "Like ‘AMEN!’ or giving witness or something?"
Lance smiled, "Something from the gut."
"Well, I don’t know how to answer that, because Mass has always evolved from private, secret, forbidden...we’re talking of thousands of years of keeping it hushed. We only really began to sing recently." Mercedes laughed harder.
"You’re pulling my leg, right?"
Mercedes shook her head, ‘no.’ Lance made an incredulous face, as if he totally disbelieved what she was saying. "You ARE serious."
"The history of the Church really comes down to gathering together in secret. So, it was mostly personal and private. It’s ‘coming out of the closet’, so to speak, but it has a long way to go. Another thousand years ought to do it." Mercedes grins as Lance shakes his head with a smile on his face.
"Thanks for coming with me, Lance."
"I have another question." Mercedes leans in and kisses his cheek. "Did you not go up to the altar to have Communion because I was there? I knew enough not to go up to have the bread because I’m not Catholic so you didn’t have to stay back because of me."
Mercedes didn’t say anything. Lance lowered his head to look directly into her eyes, "It was because of me, wasn’t it?"
Silence.
"It wasn’t because I was there though, was it?"
"I haven’t been to Reconciliation and you know us Catholics and our confessions."
Lance griped Mercedes’ hand tighter. Quietly, not looking directly at her, Lance says, "That’s not right."
Mike, Wes and Tim started talking about what they wanted to eat for breakfast. Lance was reminded that he had a luncheon interview with TEEN PEOPLE . He’d only have a half hour before he would have to be driven there. After that, it was the sound check at the Oakland Coliseum and then the Meet and Greet.
There was nothing said between them as they walked through the lobby. It was crowded with midday hustle, and Wes and Mike earned their salary by helping the couple make it through to the elevator.
As they walked down their hallway, J.C.’s door was open, "Hey, where’ve you been?"
"Church." Lance answered.
"Really?"
"Really. I was reminded about that TEEN PEOPLE thing, I’ll be out in 20 minutes or so." With that Lance opened their door, and closed it behind Mercedes.
"What’s wrong?" she asked him. Lance looked at her. He went to say something, but shook his head.
"Nothing."
"Liar. What’s wrong?"
Lance had been looking through his clothes to decide what to wear, instead he sat down on the bed and took a deep breath.
"Are we fooling ourselves into believing that we have a right to love one another physically before we’re married?"
Mercedes’ eyes widened. "Whoa."
"I could have gone to Communion, Lance. There’s no reason not to."
Lance looked at her, "So, why didn’t you?"
Mercedes just shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t know."
"Because you feel guilty about us."
"I’m a Catholic, we’re born guilty...it’s part of the faith."
Lance still had a serious expression on his face, even when Mercedes added, "That was suppose to be funny."
Lance took her hand, "I can’t give up loving you. It’s part of me. I just don’t think I could give up that physical part of our relationship."
"I am not willing to either. I am not asking you to."
"Then, marry me."
Mercedes just stared at him. "What?"
Lance looked directly into her eyes, "Please marry me, Mercedes."
She let go of Lance’s hand, stood up and paced around the bedroom.
Finally she said, "You can’t marry me. What would it do to the group? All the success you’ve all worked so hard to achieve?"
"That’s not what we should be thinking about. In the whole scheme of things, Mercedes, that’s not what’s important."
"No, Lance. It IS important. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but if marrying me has a negative effect on your career...you will resent it. You will resent ME."
Lance stood up, "No. I couldn’t. That could never happen."
"I think you’re too young to make a decision about marrying anyone." Mercedes said.
"I’m the same age my Dad was when he married my Mom. And the same age Stacey was when she and Ford got married."
"Yeah, well none of them were in some Dude band." Lance put his hands over his face and sighed. "Do you love me Mercedes?"
She stood beside him. "You know I do." she answered quietly.
Lance put his arms around her, "Then you HAVE to marry me. That’s all there is to it."
"These guys will do you serious harm."
"No, they won’t. They might yell a little, but nothing really awful." Lance smiled.
