As the car drove up to the South West Airlines terminal, Lance sighed. "I must be the world’s most selfless manager, because I can’t believe I’m letting you go back to Nashville."
Mercedes smiled meekly. Lance put his Styrofoam cup full of coffee down in the holder, and pulled her closer to him, "Baby, I wish you could stay or I could go with you. It will seem so lonely until Denver."
Mercedes wiped one lone tear away. She put her head on his shoulder. Lance kissed her cheek. "Don’t cry, baby. We’ll talk every chance we get. We’ll just keep thinking about all our beautiful plans, our whole life together! Don’t cry."
"Okay." Mercedes lifted her head off Lance’s shoulder. "I’ll see you in Denver on the 20th."
"You’ll talk to your sister today and let me know what she says."
Mercedes nods. "And you’ll talk to your family and Reverend Falkner and let me know what they say."
"As soon as I know they’re awake." Lance said quietly and then smiled. He placed his two hands around her face and brought her face to his, to kiss.
"Make me some promises, Lance." Mercedes said fighting back the tears.
"Anything, Darlin’. What do you want me to promise you?" Lance continued to place gentle kisses on her face.
All of a sudden Mercedes started to really blubber, and Lance held her tighter. "Please, please don’t cry or I don’t know how I’ll get through this." Lance said.
"I don’t know what’s come over me." Mercedes said between sobs, "This just isn’t like me to get so emotional. I’m sorry."
Lance kissed her forehead, "You don’t need to apologize. I’m going to miss you terribly, too. But, the next time I see you...we’re getting married." He backed his face up a few inches and looked into her wet eyes. "Baby, we’re getting MARRIED." Lance chuckled, and through her tears, Mercedes did, too.
"Now, what can I promise you?"
"First, you have to try and work this thing out with Justin. I don’t want to be the cause of two good friends not getting along."
Lance breathed deeply, "...I will try."
Mercedes gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Good." Then she stayed there, resting her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat.
"And secondly?"
"If the heat gets to be too much, you’ll tell me." She said softly.
Lance looked down at the top of her head with a puzzled expression, "What are you talking about?"
"Lance, things in the rags and mags...if you just wanna lay low for a while...I’ll understand."
He got right in her face and said, "We’re getting married June 21. I love you. Nothing else matters more than that."
"There’ll be so many questions."
Lance kissed her lips gently before he said, "And we’ll answer them one at a time."
Mercedes slept for a brief amount of time between Oakland and Nashville. The tea and bagel did little to help settle her queasy stomach which she knew was the result of the stress and lack of sleep.
Upon reaching Mercury Records’ studio she was met by Norm Conroy. Probably the last person she really wanted to see first thing back.
"Mercedes. Nice photo in PEOPLE, doesn’t do you justice, though."
"Thanks Norm."
"I should have known, but I didn’t...how long have you been dating Lance Bass?"
"Not a topic for discussion, Norm. Is Meredith waiting for me in the booth?" Mercedes asked to change the subject.
Norm had a deadly serious look on his face. One that almost frightened Mercedes.
"You really need to hear what I know about Lance Bass and your late husband."
Meredith walked into the studio and turned the lights on. Mercedes was sitting in the booth with her head down on top of the control panel, on top of her arms.
"Mercedes?"
Mercedes looked up and squinted at the light.
"What are y’all doing sitting in the dark?"
Mercedes looked at Meredith. Meredith likened Mercedes’ look to that of a deer caught in the headlights of a car in the middle of the road.
"Meredith. Hey, I must’ve fallen asleep. Sorry. Is Diane with you?"
"She’s on the phone with Stacey. She’s real excited about something. How was the MTV Music Awards? I saw your picture with Lance."
Mercedes shook her head and meekly smiled, "It was a lovely night. In fact the whole weekend was lovely." Mercedes couldn’t believe it herself, but she started to cry again. Not a full blown blubber like at the airport, but a fairly obvious crying jag none the less.
"Ohh, you really miss him, don’t you? Your sweetie pie." said Meredith.
"I don’t know what to say, Meredith. This is just not like me. I can’t believe I can’t stop crying today."
"Well, that’s understandable. You miss your sweetie."
Mercedes thought about all the junk Norm told her and she cried even harder. ‘Why must some people chose to be so negative and repeat vicious office rumors?’
‘Liam and Lance Bass had one hell of a fight the night Liam died. There was a night janitor who almost called the cops because the two of them were going at it in Liam’s office. You were in the hospital, I’m told Lance had to go to the emergency room, and your husband, well he ended up in the morgue. Not that I’m saying that his fight with Lance caused the accident, mind you, but that’s just the facts.’
‘I asked the night janitor if he could tell what they were fighting about and he told me, ‘ Norm paused, ‘he told me that it was over you, Mercedes. Liam said that your being in the hospital was Lance’s fault. Or that whatever happened to the baby was Lance’s fault.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’ Mercedes yelled at Norm.
‘I’m just telling you what he told me. Have you ever gone through Liam’s papers in his office? Someone else told me that he kept a file. He had a file on Lance.’ Norm seemed to hesitate, ‘Mercedes, some suggested that Liam had Lance followed because he thought you were cheating on him with Lance.’
"Is that your cell phone?" Meredith brought Mercedes out of her stupor and Mercedes reached for her bag.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Darlin’." Lance’s voice sounded so soothing to her. Right now she just wanted to cuddle up in his arms and sleep the day away...and erase all those ugly things Norm said to her. "Did I take you away from anything?"
"Nope." Then Mercedes could already feel the tears welling up in her eyes. DANG! "I’ve got to talk to you."
"Is something wrong? I mean besides the fact that I’m on the West Coast and you’re not."
"Lance, did you and Liam have a fight the night he died?"
"Whoa. Where’s that coming from?" Lance asked.
"Norm Conroy. He said the night janitor almost called the police. Is it true, Lance? It CAN’T be true, of course you didn’t. I’m sorry I brought it up."
"Wait, Mercedes." Lance paused. "Baby, it IS true. Liam and I DID have a fight that night. I want you to trust me that..."
"What?" Tears started to spill from her eyes.
"Mercedes, I want you to trust me that although it sounds bad, there were...reasons. And I didn’t want to have to upset you, but if this Norm Conroy and people like him are going to talk, then I guess you’d better hear about that night straight from me. Trust me, Mercedes. Can you?"
Mercedes placed the palm of her hand over the phone for a moment and closed her eyes. "Yes, Lance, I do trust you. I want to hear what happened that night. If you did have a fight, it must of taken a lot to get you to that point."
"Mercedes," Lance paused, "Why is it that we’ve only started to talk about this when we’re separated by all these miles? I’d give anything to hold you in my arms right now. I need to be there with you and make sure you’re okay with what I have to tell you."
"Worse than finding out about what happened in the Barn?" Mercedes asked.
"Could be, Darlin’." Lance sighed, and waved away J.C. who was standing in the doorway telling him it was time to leave for the sound check. "Crap." Lance put his hand over the phone, "J.C. I can’t leave just now. Please, man, I’ll be right out."
J.C. shrugged his shoulders and left.
"Mercedes, are you still there?"
"Yes, of course. Do you have to go?"
"I should go, but I’m not going to put you off. We should’ve talked about this sooner."
Lance did the best he could to cushion the blow for Mercedes, but no matter how you sliced it, he knew he had to tell her Liam was not disappointed that she lost the baby. And that it was that and that alone which pissed Lance off enough to want the chance to have it out with Liam. Lance decided that Mercedes didn’t need to know that Liam had been unfaithful. THAT would only deepen the wound she was feeling. After all, she had been a loving and faithful wife.
Lance would never tell her that Liam had planned her miscarriage, that would be the ultimate cruelty. She didn’t need to know that Liam didn’t deserve her, that he didn’t love her the way he should have. Liam was dead. Why bring all that up now? Lance decided to leave Mercedes’ memories alone. Let her believe he loved her. He should have loved her. Let her have that comfort.
"Liam really didn’t want the baby. I guess I knew that. You really got upset with him, huh?" Mercedes said quietly.
"Yes, Darlin’ I’m not proud of it, but I got very upset about that."
"It just went against your upbringing Lance. I know how much you love children and Liam just was more interested in...I guess having what he might call a ‘trophy wife’. Her being fat and pregnant didn’t fit into his image of things."
"I think you’d look sexy pregnant, Baby." Lance said allowing himself to actually smile. Then, he sobered. "Are you going to be okay?"
"One other thing. Norm said that the office rumor was that Liam had a file on you. He had you followed because he thought you and I were...involved. Could that be true?"
Lance glanced up to see Justin and Chris in the door way this time. "I don’t really know. The fact is that Liam was looking for something to keep *N SYNC with Trans Con. Maybe he did have me followed. Maybe he had us all followed. But, I don’t know what he thought he would find."
"Lance I can’t stand the thought that Liam might have believed I was unfaithful to him."
Lance silently cursed Liam. "Never Baby. Put that right out of your mind. Liam was so lucky to have had such a loving wife. He would’ve known better than to even think for a second that you could be unfaithful. No, I’m sure he didn’t think that of you."
‘WHO IS THIS NORM CHARACTER?’ Lance was making a mental note to ask Johnny about him TODAY.
"Darlin’, everyone is waiting on me. Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes, yes. Go ahead, you’ve got to go."
"Darlin’ I’ll call you back within the hour, okay?" Mercedes told him not to worry that she was there with Meredith and would be waiting for his next call.
Justin shot Lance a ‘look’ as soon as he clicked off the phone. Justin turned and went ahead of Chris and Lance. Chris asked Lance if anything was wrong. To which Lance replied, "I’m not sure. There’s someone at Mercury that used to work at Trans Con with Liam. I have to ask Johnny if he’s heard of Norm Conroy. This guy has been talking trash to Mercedes about Liam and I....and stuff that I really don’t want her to have to deal with. Why upset her with the truth about Liam’s infidelities? Ya know?"
Chris nodded his head as Security led them into the waiting car.
"Testing. One, Two, Three. It’s good." Lance said to Tim as they checked their head sets at the sound system control board. Lance spied Johnny, and decided to ask him a favor.
"Johnny. I need to speak with you. Could you find out whatever you can on a Norm Conroy. Supposedly he used to work with Liam for Trans Con. And, Johnny could you please order this piece of jewelry for me from this designer...no questions asked."
"Sure Lance." Johnny took the paper and looked over the description. "Hey, Lance. Is this a ring?" Silence. "Okay, no questions."
"Going ahead with it, huh?" Justin asked quietly, glaring in the opposite direction from where Lance was standing. They were going to rehearse, and all the guys were ready to go over the Klub scene in "Just Got Paid".
"Are you talking to me?" Lance asked him in return.
"Only if you’re the asshole who‘s picture was in THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER."
"I seem to recall a photo of you and Britney in that rag not so long ago and you two were in the backseat of some car." Lance said turning towards Justin.
"Well, at least it was more difficult for someone to take a photo of me with my tongue down her throat. It’s not like we were out in plain sight with a couple hundred photographers all around us." said Justin loudly with his hand on his hip.
"Why do you have to be such an asshole?" asked Lance.
Chris and J.C. looked at each other, "I think it’s better when they don’t talk to one another." Chris said.
J.C. agreed. "Hey, you two, shut up."
Chris piped in, "If you can’t say something nice, then shut the hell up."
Meredith was on her way out of the studio door for a potty break, as Diane Bass walked in. She smiled at Meredith, but as soon as the door shut she raised her hands and shouted..."Ohh HONEY!"
"You spoke with Lance?" Mercedes asked.
"Yes, and you’ve made my boy so very happy."
"I wasn’t sure you’d be pleased."
"Mercedes, if you could do me one small favor and forget how Lance’s Daddy and I behaved when you and Lance first started dating, I’d appreciate it. We’ve always been pretty particular when it came to our baby boy." Diane said. "But we’ve seen how you make him happy. You just keep doing what you’re doing, Honey. You’re the one. He’s been telling us that for some time now, ‘Mama, she’s the one.’"
"You don’t mind us getting married quietly?"
"Do you? I mean this is the woman’s big event...are you sure it’s not going to bother you down the road that you didn’t have some big fancy wedding?" Diane asked. "Cause I think that Lance is concerned about that. He wants to make sure that you’ll be happy."
Mercedes shook her head, "All I need to be happy, is your son."
"Victoria? It’s Mercedes. I have to ask you a favor."
When she asked her sister if the vacation house in Breckenridge, Colorado could be made available to her. Victoria seemed very pleased.
"Do you need someplace to hide away from everyone? I saw the magazine photos, dear. Perhaps you should rethink this relationship with a pop teen sensation. You need time away to think about whether or not this is for you. Lord knows what they’ll write about next..."
"Victoria. I...Lance and I are getting married."
Silence. "Oh. (pause) Oh. (pause) Really?"
"Yes, but we want it to be really low key and private. So private that we’re only asking a few family members to be there. Lance and I plan on going out-of-town to get the license and then marry at the retreat, if that’s okay."
"You’re my baby sister, I’ll get you whatever you want. I want you to have everything you so richly deserve, dear."
After satisfying himself that Mercedes was feeling better emotionally. They made plans to talk again later that night after the concert. For as soon as Lance got off his cell phone it was time for the Meet and Greet.
"We walk in we meet em and we greet em" Chris said laughing. "It’s the same every night. But tonight, gentlemen, do not give snide remarks, do not look cross-eyed at one another...behave yourselves or I’ll knock you both over the head. Do you hear me J?"
"I hear you. Just make sure we don’t have to sit next to each other."
"This is getting stupid. Justin, we have never let a disagreement go on this long between two of us. Lance? Come on guys." J.C. pleaded.
"Let’s go peeps are waiting." Mike told the guys and everyone filed into the special room set aside for the Meet and Greet.
Almost immediately the question of the day changed from "Is Justin really dating Britney?" to "Lance, what about the woman in the photos...is she your girlfriend?"
Johnny never attempted to ‘prompt’ the guys or help them come up with pat answers ahead of time. He never knew from day-to-day how Justin might answer the Britney question. But, he wondered in those few seconds before Lance answered the question, if he should have gone over an answer with him in advance. He should have known that Lance would know the right thing to say.
"The lovely woman in the photos is Mercedes McKenzie and she has produced some music for *N SYNC. Our relationship," Lance smiles sweetly and seems genuinely embarrassed, "is obviously close." There’s a mixture of laughter and sighs. "We are dating and I hope she will always be my best friend."
"Just the right combination of honesty and confusion, Lance." Justin said as he was adjusting his bandana after they got back to the dressing rooms.
"That’s quite a compliment coming from you. Sending the fans mixed signals has always been your specialty." Lance said to him, while he grabbed his walkman from his flight bag.
All this time, neither even bothered looking at the other.
