"Having problems Jace?"
JC just glared at him and ran both hands through his hair, making it look even worse. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, his anger took over and he closed it again. He finally flopped onto the couch beside Lance.
"Am I a bad person?"
"No," replied Lance taken aback. "Why?"
"Am I being punished?"
"No. What’s with these questions?"
"If I’m not a bad person and I’m not being punished, then what did I do to deserve to be married to someone like Alexandria?" JC moaned and buried his face into his hands.
"Would you rather be married to someone like Laurie?" Lance asked slyly.
JC cracked a bit of a smile. "Shut up." The smile quickly faded. "Seriously Lance, what am I going to do? What on earth possessed me to marry her?"
"Do you want my honest opinion or do you want me to say what you want to hear?"
"Lance...I need your honest opinion. Because I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this...dealing with her."
"Jace...I don’t know if you realized it, but ever since I’ve known you, you’ve always been in a relationship of some kind. You were with Melanie for two years when you were in the Mickey Mouse Club. Then you joined the group, broke up with Melanie and met Laurie overseas. When we came back here, you stayed alone for a year while you tried to get in touch with Laurie again. You met Carolyn and you were with her for almost a year before you met Alexandria."
"What do you do, keep tabs on all the women I go out?"
"C, come on. Don’t you recognize a pattern here? You’ve always had someone to care for you. You’re a very needy person and you want to be in a relationship at all times...so I think instead of being alone, you chose to marry Alexandria. Do you understand what I’m saying?"
JC pushed his hands through his hair and stood up. "Yeah, I think so."
"Jace...if you do decide that Alexandria isn’t what you want..."
JC glared at him.
"I’m just saying that if you do end up deciding that...maybe you should take some time out for yourself before getting extra involved with Laurie. Take some time out to be by yourself and figure out who you are."
"Lance...I’m already extra involved with Laurie." He said quietly and returned to his bunk.
JC flopped down on his bunk and reached for his cell phone and began to dial Laurie’s number. He sat back and waited for the call to connect when he remembered that Craig was home and he couldn’t call her in case he answered. He placed his phone in front of him and sighed.
"Damn."
**********
Laurie slept straight through the night and didn’t wake until the next morning when the first rays of sunlight streamed across her face. She stretched languidly and savored the warmth that was coursing through her veins. She groaned inwardly when she realized that Craig was sleeping next to her and had snuggled into her side.
She rolled her eyes and threw back the covers gently so that she didn’t wake Craig up. She stretched again and headed into the bathroom to take her shower. Her thoughts were on JC the entire time she was getting ready for work. Just as she grabbed her keys, Craig came downstairs dressed in his robe and was scratching his head.
"Oh, that’s attractive," Laurie thought and rolled her eyes.
"Hey honey," Craig approached her and kissed her cheek. "First night back, did you sleep well?"
"Mmm," she replied absentmindedly as she pretended to dig for something in her purse.
"Good. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be here when you get home. I have to fly to New York for a few days. I should be home by Friday and we can spend the whole weekend together."
"Fine."
"You’re mad."
"Craig, I don’t get mad. I’m used to you leaving all the time." She paused. "But fine, you’ll be home this weekend. Great. Now I have to go or I’ll be late for work."
"I love you Laurie," he said softly.
Laurie just shook her head sadly and walked out the door. When she arrived at the office, she quickly checked her messages and saved the important ones to deal with later. She kicked off her shoes and glanced at her watch. Nine o’clock, which meant it was noon in Toronto. She reached for her phone and dialed JC’s number, hoping he was already awake. She breathed a sigh of relief when he answered on the first ring.
"Hey babe," JC said.
"Hey," Laurie couldn’t help but smile. "How are you?"
"Better than I was last night, that’s for sure. I almost called you, but then I remembered that Craig was home."
"You could have just said that you were calling from work, I doubt Craig would have questioned it. But it’s probably a good thing that you didn’t call because as soon as I got home, I had a long bath and promptly fell asleep."
"Oh, did someone wear you out?" JC asked mischievously.
"I think so," Laurie murmured. "I just can’t seem to remember who it was though." She teased.
"If you were here, I’d spend all night reminding you," JC told her in a low sultry voice.
Laurie inhaled sharply as she all too easily envisioned JC’s hands roaming over her body. "Josh..." she said softly.
"That’s what you get for teasing me," he chuckled. Lance walked by and nudged JC, winking at him before he joined Justin and Joey backstage. "Umm, Laur...I need to tell you something."
Laurie felt her stomach drop. "What is it?"
"You were right. Lance knew there was something going on between us. He cornered me yesterday after he made Joey trade buses."
"Oh."
"But I think it’s a good thing sweetie. He said he supports us and I know we can trust him. Besides, now that someone other than us knows, it feels more real."
"Yeah, it does." She suddenly smiled. "So who do I get to tell?"
"I didn’t tell Lance, he figured it out," JC laughed. Then he sighed. "Hun, I have to go, the guys are telling me that lunch was just put out. And if I don’t get something to eat before Joey does..."
Laurie laughed. "Yeah I know. And I suppose I should get some work done..." "Ok...I love you."
"I love you too, Josh."
Laurie was smiling when she hung up the phone.
**********
Alexandria smiled to herself as she walked through the crowded hallways backstage at the SkyDome. She stopped to lean against a wall and took a long drag of her cigarette. As she exhaled, Tiny stepped around the corner and took the cigarette from between her fingers, and extinguished it immediately. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she turned to look at him.
"What do you think you’re doing?" She demanded.
"I don’t care if you’re married to JC or not, you’re not allowed to smoke in here. The designated smoking areas are outside." Tiny growled.
"I can smoke back here if I want," she huffed and lit another cigarette, which Tiny promptly took from her again. "What the hell?"
"Listen you stupid bitch, there’s pyro back here and it’s against the law to smoke back here. So if you want to smoke, go outside." Tiny paused. "What the hell are you doing here anyway? C said he wasn’t seeing you again until he went home."
"He doesn’t know I’m here," she smirked and headed in the direction of the Toy Room.
**********
"So who was that you were talking to Jace?" Lance sent a sly grin in his direction and JC proceeded to glare at him. "Anyone we know?"
"It’s none of..." JC’s voice trailed off as the door to the room opened and Tiny entered. "Hey man, it’s about time you joined us."
"Thanks," Tiny sat down with the others. "Umm...your woman is here."
JC shot a look at Lance and Lance shrugged.
"What do you mean my woman’s here?"
"That thing you married."
JC’s eyes grew wide and he shot another look at Lance. "W-Where is she?"
"When I saw her, she was heading in the direction of the Toy Room," Tiny replied with his mouth full of food. JC sighed and pushed his plate away.
"I wasn’t hungry anyway. I had better go greet her or I’ll have hell to pay later."
JC reluctantly stood up and pushed his chair in before heading to the door. He let it close softly behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized that Alexandria was standing in front of him. She ran her hands up his chest and slid them around the back of his neck.
"Hey baby," she purred. "I was just looking for you."
"I might as well make nice," JC thought and kissed her. "This is a surprise."
"Well, you were so mad last night, I thought I would fly up here so that we can talk," she suggested and pulled him in the direction of the Toy Room.
JC felt tension enter his body when Alexandria mentioned their argument the night before. Since talking to Laurie, all the anger had drained out of his body and he had temporarily forgotten that it was something that still needed to be dealt with. His attention, however, was suddenly drawn to the location of Alexandria’s hands.
"Dria." JC removed her hands from his crotch. "What are you doing?"
"I want to apologize for last night," she murmured huskily and pushed JC down onto the sofa. She knelt down in front of him and her hands began working on undoing his pants. "I don’t like it when we fight."
"Dria...Dria come on stop, I don’t have time for this right now." JC’s breath hitched when he felt her mouth slide down his length and he mentally cursed his body for responding when he didn’t want it to. "Just pretend it’s Laurie," he thought. "Just pretend it’s Laurie."
JC watched through half closed eyes as his wife stopped what she was doing and walked over to the door to make sure it was locked. She walked back to the sofa and straddled JC’s lap.
"Oh JC..." she moaned.
**********
Lonnie walked into the room where the guys were eating lunch and did a mental head count. His brow furrowed when he realized that one of their number was missing.
"Where’s C?"
"Toy Room," Tiny responded with his mouth full. "The spawn of Satan showed up."
Chris and Joey immediately started to laugh and high-fived each other while the entire team of security snickered.
"You know," Justin said thoughtfully. "C would be so much better off with someone else...someone like Laurie."
Hearing Justin, Lance began to choke on his sandwich and received a few thumps on the back from Joey.
"You ok man?" Chris asked once Lance had sufficiently recovered. "What was that about?"
"Just umm...went down the wrong way," Lance replied and took a long drink of his milk. Lance was staring at Justin and wondering if he knew anything.
"What would make you say something like that J?" Joey asked. "That JC would be better off with someone like Laurie?"
"I dunno," Justin shrugged. "They were together in Europe, it just makes sense that they would find their way back to each other. It’s no big secret that Jace isn’t happy being married to Alexandria."
"But what if Laurie is happy being married to what’s his face?" Joey countered.
"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that she’s married. Anyway, change of subject – Chris, where’s your woman today?"
"She drove up to visit her mom and her sister, she said she might be back before soundcheck, but I doubt it. She promised that she would be back for the concert though, because we’re going to Club London after." Chris replied.
"Hey, isn’t that where you guys met?" Lance asked.
"Yeah," Chris grinned.
"I guess you don’t want us tagging along, huh?" Joey asked.
"I can’t stop you, it’s a free country."
"I’m sure Justin wants to go because he’s legal here," Joey laughed and Justin threw a piece of bread at him. "Hey, how much longer before soundcheck?"
"About an hour," Lance replied. "Why?"
"I think I’m going to go and catch a quick nap in the Quiet Room."
"I’m going to go play some basketball...you up for it Chris?" Justin challenged.
"You’re on!"
Lance just laughed and shook his head as the guys left the room one by one. He took out his palm pilot and jotted down a few ideas for FreeLance that he needed to deal with later. As an afterthought, he added a side note to talk to JC later if he didn’t come to him first. He had a very bad feeling that Alexandria was up to no good.
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