(Planet Hollywood, NYC)
Inside the limo, as it drove them back to their downtown Manhattan hotel, Chris gave Lance a knowing look. "You’ve been pretty subdued since the confrontation with Dr. Butcher...is everything alright?"
Lance forehead furrowed, "Chris, I think I might have made some terrible assumptions about that man...but even worse, I think I may have...failed to..." Lance looked out the window to the people on 44th Street, his eyes starting to brim with tears. He bit his lip, "I failed to keep the faith. I failed Mercedes. I should have known. I should have."
Chris put his hand on Lance’s knee. "What’s happened, Scoop?"
Lance rubbed the side of his nose, and widened his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears from coming. "You said, there must’ve been a good reason why Mercedes would do the things she did. Leave the country, file for divorce...things we couldn’t understand. Things I couldn’t....understand. The only thing I could think about was Liam raising up from the grave to bite me in the ass. Liam trying to destroy my reputation . Liam having the last laugh. It was my damn...pride!" Pain showed all over Lance’s face, then just when you thought he might crumble, he covered his face in his hands. "Oh God, she’s alone, she’s frightened and I don’t know how to find her."
Joey, J.C. and Justin watch Lance with sympathy. Joey grabs his shoulder and massages it; J.C. gives him a pat on his other knee. Justin brings his hand up to his own face to wipe away a tear he shed, gazing at his friend with compassion and concern.
"Lance. I think, your karma must be good today. I have to tell you guys about a woman I met outside of Planet Hollywood before the Press Conference."
Then Chris preceded to tell them about Gwen, the bracelet and sending her to Dani in the waiting limo.
"I can’t guarantee anything other than, it sounds like you’re a lot closer to finding Mercedes than you might think."
When the elevator opened on their floor, the guys all piled out to search for Dani. Chris yelled her name, Lance walking swiftly beside him. Upon hearing him call her name, Dani comes out into the hallway and in back of her stood Stacey and another woman. Chris recognized her from Planet Hollywood. Lance approaches her and says, "Please tell me you know where my wife is."
"Has she still been having morning sickness?" Lance asked. Sitting close to Gwen on the sitting room couch. They had been talking nonstop for the past half hour. Stacey sitting on the other side of him.
"Actually, she’s doing much better. She hasn’t gained any weight back yet from the first month she was ill, but she hasn’t lost anymore and the doctor said that was good." Gwen smiled at Lance and reached into her bag. "I brought something for you." She placed the video tape in his hands. "This is your baby."
Lance was speechless. "It’s from Sadie’s sonogram. You can see the heart beat. It brought tears to our eyes, for sure." Lance just stared at the cassette for the longest time. "Just like the bracelet I told you I took from her jewelry box without asking? I slipped away with this and didn’t tell her I was going to try and bring it here to you."
"Thank you." Was all Lance could get out. But, it was enough, Gwen could tell how very much it meant to him. He left the room, taking the video tape to the bedroom VCR so he could watch it alone.
As he sat there, on the edge of the bed watching, his hands framed his face. That tiny heart beat. That spark of life. That miracle of God.
It was amazing.
Lance gazed upon the screen. He couldn’t get over the magnitude of it all. His fingers went to his mouth, that was HIS baby! Lance smiled, he almost giggled! His baby, inside Mercedes. Alive.
The awesome power of God.
When he came back out into the sitting room area, all eyes turned to see his beaming face. "Gwen, I have to call Mercedes and go and bring her home."
"Lance, if you call her, she may very well run...she is so sure that a reconciliation would place your life and your baby’s life in danger."
"Then what do you suggest I do? I won’t have a moment’s peace until I hold her in my arms again."
"As soon as you can go to her, just show up at my home. Lord knows she’s missed you terribly. I’ve heard her crying at night, when she didn’t know I did. She wants to be with you so badly, but she’s frightened." When Gwen told him this, Lance turned from them to hide the tears he was wiping from his eyes.
"Lance, you should return the bracelet to her for me." Gwen said. Lance held her hand and silently nodded his thanks.
"What will the two of you do?" Stacey asked. "How can you be sure that her sister won’t try something?"
Lance sat back down next to his sister, "Stacey, first of all I’m sorry I wasn’t able to talk to anyone at home about this. And I’ve been pretty rude to you since you showed up in Pittsburgh. In my own defense, I just didn’t know what to say. Now, I do. I think I will call Mom and Dad before we leave for Detroit tomorrow. There’s a lot of explaining I have to do. If I had been honest with Mercedes about everything from the start..."
"That wouldn’t have changed the real threat, which was and IS her sister. Bro, don’t think this is all your fault, because it isn’t. And it isn’t Mercedes fault either. You are two people who have loved each other so much and outside forces, real evil, have tried to destroy what you have. Because of greed or jealousy or both." Stacey said.
Lance got his laptop out and was looking into airplane reservations. "You still haven’t answered my question." Stacey pointed out. "How will you be able to keep Mercedes’ sister from carrying out her threats to your life and the lives of Mercedes and the baby?"
"Together, we’ll be invincible." Lance said confidently. "I don’t mean to trivialize anything. I know there’s a very real threat to Mercedes and the baby. She could be arrested for the fire at Trans Con. But, I doubt she’d ever do any jail time for it. The biggest threat that I can see is her sister using the arson charge to have her committed to Fall Brook again. I need to contact Johnny and our legal team to help us figure THAT one out. At least we hold all the information about the drugs, when they were used to cause her hallucinations and that should really help keep her out of the mental hospital. And we have to put an end to those divorce proceedings! I have to be in the position to help her, legally. As her husband, I should be able to override Victoria’s plot to commit her again. But, it won’t work if there’s a divorce in the works."
"I can’t figure out how I could possibly get to Dublin within my time constraints." Lance said punching in the numbers on the lap top.
"Why don’t you call Johnny? Jive is always sending someone over to Europe for business on it’s private jet," Chris said.
"Thanks Chris, it’s worth a try." Lance took his cell phone into the bedroom.
(July 18 Pontiac, Mich. Silver Dome)
"What did they say?" Stacey asked her brother when he came out from the back of the bus.
"Congratulations. Good Luck. Why didn’t you call sooner. Pretty much everything I expected them to say." Lance smiled. "Thanks for coming to Pittsburgh and reminding me that my family is always there for me." Lance hugged her. "Stacey, I need for you to know..." Lance took a deep breath, "About that night I spent in a woman’s apt..."
Stacey stood up and put her arms around her brother. "You didn’t have to tell me this. But, I am glad that you did. The thought of you having something
like that between you two was eating me up inside."
Lance widened his eyes and tilted his head, "She’s my everything, Sis. She took a chunk of my heart away with her when she left. But, no matter what I did to try and erase any thought of her...numb myself with alcohol or flirt with temptation...deep inside I knew I would never be whole again without her in my life." Lance gave his sister a smile. Lance was throwing things into his flight bag, "Now, how am I EVER going to make it thru the concert tonight!!"
"Hey, Lance phone for you!" Wes said as he caught up to Lance and the guys as they strolled backstage to the area that they had set up for dinner with the
crew.
"I’m so glad I caught you! Mercedes just called me." It was Gwen in New York. "She’s doing a little sightseeing this week while I’m gone. I tried to talk
her into staying in Dublin, but I didn’t want to tip her off entirely. I got a partial itinerary from her, and I can pretty much tell you where she’ll be tomorrow afternoon. I just hope she doesn’t go spontaneous on us all of a sudden."
"You’re being picked up at the Detroit airport, and dropped off in Dublin?" J.C. asked.
Lance smiled, "Yeah. You gotta love Johnny. He talked the exec from Jive into leaving a day early. This guy’s going to London, actually, and he’s just
stopping here in Detroit to pick up my sorry butt. Making a drop off in Dublin, then on to his destination."
"It’s a good thing we sold 9 million CDs ‘eh Scoop?!" Chris said. "They’d never go out of their way like this for the Back Street Boys!"
Lance felt good. For the first time in weeks he had some hope again. He laughed at Chris’ joke.
"Let me get this straight again. You think the flight should arrive in Dublin around 8 am tomorrow, OUR time, but it will be 1pm tomorrow in Ireland. "
J.C. tried to clarify.
"Yeah. That’s pretty much the idea. But, when I leave Ireland, with Mercedes, it will work in our favor. Take off 5 hours time difference. I could leave
Thursday at 10 am Ireland time and be in Philadelphia for the show that night by 1 pm that day!"
"So, basically you have less than 24 hours in Ireland to find her, and convince her to come home." said J.C.
"No prob." Lance grinned.
"Confidence. I like that!" Chris said.
Lance recalled a similar statement Mercedes once made, on his first visit to the Vineyard when he wanted to ride Pre and she said, ‘OOoo, a man with
confidence, I like that.’
Please, God, help me find her and convince her to come home with me.
"Hey, are you gonna show us this video tape of Baby Bass?" Justin asked. Lance nodded with enthusiasm.
"Oh great! I wanted to see this!" Stacey said as Lance went to pop the tape into the VCR.
"So, where’s the head?"
"How can you tell what body part we’re looking at?"
"Hey, Scoop. You having an alien baby or what?"
"Hey, are you sure this is Mercedes’ video tape? It says ‘Lambert’ in the left hand corner." Joey says.
Lance nodded knowingly. "That’s our baby alright." It was their own secret alias. He glanced around the room at his friends and his sister watching the video of Mercedes’ sonogram. ‘Our baby.’
His parents were going to be GRAND parents...his mother was cautiously ecstatic over that prospect. Mainly, his parents wanted him to be careful. To
bring her home, clear up all the misconceptions and rumors...and above all give communication and honesty it’s rightful place at the heart of all they mean to one another. It was sound advise. The kind he came to expect from his parents.
Lance tried to downplay any danger to him or his new little family. But, within his mother’s cautious optimism he could hear the concern in her voice.
Just like he would do anything to protect his wife and unborn child, he knew his parents wished they could still protect him and they would always have a
hard time letting go and understanding that Lance was his own man now. So deep is that bond of love within the family. But, it was his duty to find his wife, protect and defend her and their unborn baby.
His and his alone.
