"She just walked away." Lance wasn’t really talking to anyone, but the guys in the car didn’t know that. "She walked away from me." Lance covered his face. "How could she just leave?" He was stunned.
"Lance, do you want me to go back and look for her?" Wes offered.
"She wouldn’t let me get any closer to her." Lance looked at Wes with a blank, expressionless face. "How could she just walk away like that?"
They had driven for only a matter of minutes, then Lance said. "Johnny, take me to Riverview Towers, Suite 1049"
"What’s there Lance?"
"There’s business I need to take care of. There’s something I need to do." Lance seemed to revive somewhat.
Even when the car approached the Towers, Johnny didn’t realize that this was Dr. Westfall’s office. "Just leave me off here." Lance said, opening the door before the car had even come to a complete stop.
"Hey, this is that Doctor’s office Mercedes came to yesterday." Lonnie warned Johnny.
"NO, Lance, you shouldn’t be here. I know that you’re not in the right frame of mind right now. This isn’t going to help anything."
Johnny pushed Wes out the door, when Lance took off, "Keep him from getting arrested, will you please?"
Lance pushed his way through the waiting room receptionist into Dr. Westfall’s inner office. Wes could barely keep up with the angry young man...and he wasn’t at all sure what Lance was capable of doing right now.
"What? Who are you?" The doctor rose and at the same time pushed a button for his receptionist. "Mrs. Whitney?"
"She already knows I’m here." Lance said as he pushed his fist into Dr. Westfall’s face.
"You Mother fucker, you killed my baby. How could you destroy my...whole..." a lump formed in Lance’s throat as he tried to speak, "world without even giving it a thought. Like it was merely some tissue to be discarded."
Wes, rushed in behind him. "Damn, boy." He said as he placed an arm around Lance’s chest.
"You’re crazy!" The doctor yelled at him, "I could have you arrested!"
"Go ahead! Do it!" Lance said as he made an attempt to lunge for the doctor again. But, Wes was way too strong for him.
"I should do it!" The doctor said holding his nose to stop the bleeding.
"I FUCKING DARE YOU TO DO IT!" Lance screamed at him. "But, you won’t. You won’t because my bet is that the State of Florida doesn’t know you’re performing abortions in your office, asshole!"
Wes started to drag Lance out of the office, "Come on Lance. We’ve got to get your butt outta here."
Lance was unresponsive as the car sped for the airport. "We are getting you back to St. Louis. ASAP Before you land on the front page of USA TODAY." Johnny yelled. "Let me see that hand."
Lance gave no protest as Johnny looked at it. "I think you’re going to need to ice those knuckles. Let‘s get something to clean them up." Lance had nothing to say.
Johnny and Wes exchanged glances. The lecture could wait.
"We have a 1:10 flight that will get us into St. Louis by 4:39 so you won’t miss the sound check. Do you want me to go with you?" Johnny asked checking his lap top for the reservations.
Lance just gave him, ‘a look’. "I don’t need any fucking babysitter."
Johnny’s face twisted. He took a deep breath. "Ok Lance. I wish we could mend some wounds here today before you go back. Let’s try Mercedes cell phone number again, shall we?"
"I think she made herself clear, Johnny. " Lance said. Johnny looked at Wes.
"You don’t mean that, man. You’ve both had a very emotional 24 hours. That still don’t change nothing in the long run." Wes said.
"She was leaving the country. Do you understand? She couldn’t get far enough away from me." Lance said with venom in his voice. "You don’t make a more definitive statement than that."
Lance got out of the car in front of the terminal. Johnny grabbed Wes and said, "Try not to let him get himself into trouble, ok?" Wes nodded and then Johnny added, "Keep an eye on him. He really worries me."
They find the VIP lounge and Wes breathes a sigh of relief that they managed to walk through without attracting another crowd. A guest relations person greeted them and asked if there was anything Lance needed. "Yeah. Where’s the bar?"
In the meantime, Wes had grabbed an ice bucket and filled it up. He walked over to Lance and pushed Lance’s hand into the ice.
"Whoa. That’s damn cold." Lance commented.
"What do you have there?" Wes motioned to the glass.
"Rum and coke, Dad. Don’t worry I have ID."
"That won’t solve nothing."
Lance laughed bitterly, "Tell me what will."
Lance and Wes were back in St. Louis less than 12 hours after they left. Wes gave the guys a warning glance as they disembarked from the elevator. Lance walked by Chris without saying a word in response to his ‘hello’. Wes just shook his head.
"Hey, Scoop. I told you to call me. What happened?"
Lance just put his arm up as if to shield himself and grunted, "Don’t ask."
All the while, Mercedes had been sitting within yards of the VIP Lounge and neither knew the other was in the building. Mercedes flight left for NY at 1:55 and she flew on Delta that night at about the same time as Lance got ready for that night’s performance.
While she was flying to Europe, *N SYNC was taking the stage. Mercedes felt so sick, and so miserable. She relived the sight of those beautiful green eyes pleading with her and her heart sunk. How else could she keep Victoria from going after him? Mercedes puts a hand on her abdomen. How else could she keep their baby safe?
Again, Lance managed a well programmed performance. But, this time when he introduced "God Must Have Spent" he didn’t touch his heart. When it came time to perform "This I Promise You" Lance could see, in his mind’s eye, the time he sprayed water from his bottle and tried to make it reach Mercedes...and they both laughed hysterically. But, where was she tonight? Why did she feel she had to leave?
The tour bus quieted down after 1 am. It would appear that everyone was asleep. Chris came out to find Lance sitting in the lounge area staring out at the lights in the houses they would pass on the highway. They were headed for Cleveland, Ohio.
Lance could see Chris in his reflection on the window and he looked away as Chris sat beside him.
"Don’t you think you ought to try and get some sleep. Tylenol PM usually works for me."
"OOoo, let’s see. I smell her all around me, in the sheets and pillowcases. I relive the night we were rolling in the grass in the rain on the Vineyard and I end up hard in an empty bed. I don‘t think Tylenol can fix that." Lance smirked. "Go back to your wife."
"And what about your wife? Wes said you talked to her, you SAW her. Tell me what had you punching out this doctor?"
"The Butcher? Yeah, I had to. That bastard pressured Mercedes into having an abortion. I know she never would have done it otherwise."
"Lance, I’m sorry. I know how much you both love children."
"Yeah, well...it just wasn’t meant to be." Lance said trying very hard not to look directly at Chris.
"Now, where did Mercedes go?"
"I dunno. She made sure she told some kids that I was in the terminal so she could make her get away."
"Wes told me it was quite a scene."
"Wes has a big mouth."
"Now, who else am I going to get any info out of? I certainly wasn’t getting anything out of you."
Lance started to rub his tired eyes. "She left me standing there, I couldn’t get to her. " He had an involuntary gasp escape his lungs. He narrowed his eyes and cursed his emotions.
"Lance, " Chris said firmly, "Mercedes just needs some space and time to make some sense out of all the garbage she found out yesterday."
"Her sister hinted that maybe Mercedes found out something about me that made her want to stay away."
"Don’t go there, Lance." Chris said, "I wouldn’t trust anything Madame Bitch says. "
"Mercedes told me to stay away from her sister in the terminal yesterday. As if she was afraid of me harming her."
"Lance, remember I’ve met Victoria. I’m sure it’s more likely that Mercedes is afraid of Victoria harming YOU."
Lance smiled in spite of himself. "I sit here looking in the windows of these houses as we go by. Normal people with their regular lives. Husbands and wives sneaking in some nookie nookie while the kids are asleep with some Late Night Talk Show or infomercial on. Babies being rocked to sleep."
"Kids barfing because they ate too much shit at the county fair." Chris added, injecting some humor.
Lance started to laugh, but suddenly he pulled his hands through his hair and began to sob. It was enough that Chris was there. He placed a hand on Lance’s back as it heaved.
Mercedes plane landed early, but Gwen was already there waiting for Mercedes to come through customs. It was about the time Chris was comforting Lance. With the five hour time difference it was 6:20 am in Dublin, Ireland.
