JC ran a hand through his hair and placed the other on the small of Lyn’s back. He looked down at her and instantly saw the rage boiling in her eyes. Her angry gaze landed on Chris who swallowed hard and held up his hands, “Lyn, I can see your pissed, but don’t be. This is important.”

Lyn turned on her heel, “I’m not dealing with this. I refuse to let that woman in this house, I don’t have time to disinfect the entire house before our loved ones arrive in the morning.”

“LYN!” Even JC was shocked to hear such a rude comment escape her. Even at her angriest, she always carried herself with grace and dignity. She was never mean or spiteful, for no reason.

“JC, you can do whatever you want, but I will NOT be in the same room as her. You might as well invite John Gross to Thanksgiving dinner and sit him down next to Stasia. I CANNOT believe you would do this Chris! You must have lost your mind! There is no....”

“Lyn,” A soft voice stopped her in the middle of her tirade. She had never heard Chris sound the way he did when he continued, “I had exactly the same reaction when she approached me the first time....”

Now JC’s voice cut in, “FIRST TIME?”

Amanda stepped forward, “I approached Chris and Joey in Orlando a few weeks ago.”

Lyn turned to face Chris again, “A few weeks ago?”

He nodded, “I told her to go away. I told her I wanted to kill her.”

Amanda nodded, “He did.”

Lyn pointed at the woman, “YOU shut up. Chris, you better begin explaining.”

JC leaned forward, “Now who is pulling in?” They all turned to see headlights moving slowly up the driveway.

Lyn’s breath caught, “Mother of God! Lance and Stasia.”

Amanda became visibly shaken. She grew pale and seemed to get smaller right in front of Lyn’s eyes, “Stasia! I can’t be here!” They all turned to looked at her, “She has a Restraining Order! I’ll be in violation!”

Chris walked into the house past JC and Lyn and said, “If you’re telling the truth, and you really want to help, Stasia will not call the police. If you’re lying and have something to hide, I suggest you get the hell out of here now.”

They watched as she looked at the couple climbing out of the car and back at the people standing in the entrance hall, “I came here to help. I’m staying.”

“For your sake I hope she’s drunk or in a REALLY good mood.” Chris smirked.

Lyn looked up at JC, “Stasia is going to KILL her.”

“There is a very good chance Stasia is going to kill her.” JC looked at Amanda, “Well, you might as well come inside, I don’t want a screaming fight on the front lawn in the middle of the night.”

Amanda looked up at him with terror in her eyes, “Screaming fight?”

“You didn’t think she’d be happy to see you did you?”

Amanda ran a hand through her hair, “I guess I didn’t think about it.” She walked into the house.

Stasia ran up the stair with her fingers intertwined with Lance’s, “Why are y’all up? You know what? I don’t care! We had to come over to tell you! I PASSED! Michigan, New York and Florida! I should have the results for Mississippi next week! How proud are you?” She beamed at all of them.

JC smiled weakly, “That is GREAT sweetie.” He hugged her and motioned with his head to Lance, who followed JC’s line of sight and starred in disbelief when his eye landed on Amanda Cooper, who was standing next to Chris in JC’s living room.

Lance pulled on Stasia’s hand, “Millie, maybe we should let JC and Lyn get back to bed.” He tried to pull her back toward the door.

She looked at him like he was crazy, “Harry! What are you talking about? We were planning on waking them up anyway! I want to share this with our friends.”

“Millie...”

“Stasia, he’s afraid your going to see me.” Amanda spoke quietly.

Stasia froze. All eyes in the room were locked on her as she turned slowly toward the voice she didn’t want to remember, but knew she would never forget. Lance’s hand tightened around her’s and JC’s arm remained around her shoulders. Lyn couldn’t tell what Stasia was thinking, she had never seen her friend look completely blank before. Stasia simply said, “I don’t understand.”

Chris walked over to stand in front of her, “I brought her here. She claims she wants to help Lyn. She claims she can help her with her case, and she says she wants to make it up to you.”

“Make what up to me?” Her voice was slightly shaky, which frightened all of her friends.

“I know you probably won’t believe me, but I never wanted for you to get hurt. I didn’t know what that man was going to do to you. I see that day in my head all of the time and I wish I could take it back, I wish I would have stopped him.” Amanda spoke quickly.

JC and Lance both felt Stasia begin shaking, she whispered, “Why?”

Lance looked down at her and cupped her cheek with his free hand, “Why what Millie?”

“Why is she here?”

“I have proof that Reagan and his stepfather have been plotting against Lyn. I have proof that they have been blackmailing someone. I have no idea who they have been blackmailing...for all I know it’s one of you. Stasia, I know I can’t take back what happened, but if I can help you, help Lyn....maybe it will help a little.”

“What kind of proof?” Stasia tried to walk into the living room, but her legs didn’t seem to want to work, “May I have a drink please?”

Chris immediately jogged into the kitchen. He returned seconds later with two glasses, “Vodka or water?” He held out the glasses.

“Both. Vodka first.” She took the first glass and downed it’s contents in one gulp. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head a little. She switched glasses with Chris and took a sip of the water.

She walked into JC’s living room and sat down on one of the sofas. Lance sat on one side of her, JC on the other. Lyn perched herself on the arm of the sofa next to JC. Chris sat on the floor in front of Stasia. Amanda perched herself on the edge of the chair across from the group. Stasia narrowed her eyes, “What kind of proof do you have?”

“I have a video tape, two audio tapes and a huge stack of photographs.” Amanda pulled her large purse onto her lap.

They all watched intently as she pulled a large brown envelope out of her purse and held it out. They all just sat there starring at her, when she stood up to walk across the room, Chris jumped up and threw himself over his friends. Lyn slipped off of the arm of the sofa and landed with a thud on the floor. Lance shoved Chris back onto the floor, “WHAT THE HELL?”

“I thought she was going to shoot you guys!”

Stasia smacked the back of his head, “WITH A VIDEO TAPE?”

“Who knows what’s in the envelope. Could be a gun!” He rubbed the back of his head.

JC looked at Chris, “You’re an idiot. Why would you bring her here if you thought she was going to shoot us?” He leaned over the arm of the sofa and helped Lyn get up off of the floor, “You OK?”

“I’m fine.”

Lance smacked Chris, “I swear, I wish you didn’t have to create drama everywhere you go! Lyn could have gotten hurt you fool!”

“I was trying to save all of you!”

“Chris, STOP talking.” Stasia rested her hand on the top of his head, “Nice thought, stupid execution.”

Amanda was just standing in front of the group as they bickered back and forth, “I wouldn’t hurt any of you.”

“Yeah, well...we’re a little leery of what you say.” Lyn pointed out, “We spent a lot of time in a hospital thanks to you and your friend. We watched Stasia come close to dying. We watched Lance deal with almost losing her. I’m sorry if we haven’t jumped on the trust wagon just yet.”

Stasia smirked and then said, “Lyn, calm down. You’re going to have a heart attack if you don’t get your temper under control.”

“Umm, yeah.” Lyn nodded.

Stasia held out her hand, “May I see this stuff?”

Amanda handed her the envelope and then sat down again, “May I suggest you don’t look through all of that...here...with everyone?”

The color drained from Lyn’s face, “Why?”

“I don’t think you want Lance and Chris...and probably JC seeing the video, and a lot of the pictures...are...yeah. You just don’t.”

Lyn stood up and held out her hand, “Stasia.”

Stasia held out the envelope, “Do you want some support?”

Lyn just nodded and Stasia followed her to the back of the house. He hands were shaking when she turned over the envelope and saw her name written on it in Reagan’s hand writing. “Why do I have a sick feeling I’m not going to like this?”

“Because you’re not. Do you want me to look at it first?”

“No.” Lyn shook her head. She pulled out a thick stack of photographs and began flipping through them. “Oh nice.” She looked down at herself climbing out of the shower wrapped in a towel. “OH SHIT!”

“What?” Stasia saw the rage flash in Lyn’s eyes.

“He was trying to set me up. Look at this picture of Lance and I.” She handed Stasia the picture of Lyn curled up on a row of folding chairs at a venue. Her head was in Lance’s lap and his hand was resting on her shoulder. Lyn was hugging her laptop like a stuffed animal, “God Stasia, I swear nothing was going on. My bag was on his lap. I wasn’t trying anything!”

Stasia actually laughed, “LYN! I KNOW! Don’t worry about it! I’ve slept on every one of the guys, you know that. Don’t worry! I think we have more to worry about than a stupid picture that could be easily explained away. I’m more worried about this.” Stasia picked up the video tape.

“We have to watch it don’t we?” Lyn looked at her friend.

“It’s up to you. I can watch it and tell you about it. You can watch it alone, or we can watch it together.”

Lyn was quiet for a moment and then closed her eyes, “You’ll watch it with me?”

“Of course I will.” Stasia held out her hand, when Lyn took it Stasia held it with both hands, “You are one of my best friends, I will do whatever you want me to do.”

Lyn took the tape and walked over to the TV. She turned on the TV and VCR, when she pushed play, she and Stasia held hands again. After a few seconds of static, Reagan’s huge face came into focus as he positioned the camera. He grinned evilly, pointed at the bed and nodded his head. Stasia slowly shook her head, “Oh NICE!”

“He’s a real winner.” Lyn rolled her eyes.

When they saw Lyn walk onto the screen Stasia smiled, “Cute suit.”

“THANKS! It’s still one of my favorites, but I left it in Orlando, maybe I should bring it with me.”

“Can I borrow it?”

“Oh sure! I have these shoes that are totally perfect for it.”

“COOL!” They dropped the subject of cute clothes as soon as they realized that Reagan was taking Lyn’s clothes off on the TV. Stasia’s breath caught, “OK! You know what? I think we could watch this on fast forward, and maybe it will be less painful.”

“Yeah.” Lyn nodded, as she pressed the fast forward button.

When the tape ended, Stasia realized that she had no feeling in her fingers, “Lyn...my hand is a little numb.”

“Sorry about that.” Lyn let go and starred at the blank TV screen, “Do we need it? The tape?”

“Well...I don’t know just yet. We have to find out how in the hell she got her hands on it, and what the situation is with her and Reagan now.”

“We have to talk to Amanda?” Lyn scrunched her nose.

“TRUST ME, I like this less than you do.”

Lyn sat down on the couch, “How is JC going to look at me after this?”

Stasia squatted in front of her and took both of her hands, “Lyn, we’re talking about the same JC who followed you to Ireland to get you back. He knows you. He knows you had nothing to do with this.”

“That doesn’t make it any better. There is a video with ME in it. There is permanent proof that I was dumb enough to lose my virginity to an evil bastard who was twisted enough to video tape it and then try to blackmail my loved ones with that tape.”

Stasia stood up and said, “Lyn, do you trust me? As you attorney and as you friend?”

“You know I do. I’d trust you with my life.”

Stasia crossed the room and took the tape out of the VCR. “I think we may be able to figure out a way to use this to our benefit. We could use this in OUR case against Reagan.” Lyn nodded slowly, “BUT...” Stasia dropped the tape on the floor and stomped on it several times, “...we’re going to figure out a way to crush him without it.”

Lyn began crying, “Thank you.”

“Hey you. No crying.” Stasia hugged her tightly and then shouted over her shoulder, “JC! Come here!”

There was a lot of noise from the living room and JC burst into the room, “What’s going on?”

“I made her cry.” Stasia winked at him as she moved for him to take her place.

JC pushed Lyn’s hair back over her shoulders, “Hey now Sweetpea. What’s this all about?”

“I love Stasia.” Lyn sniffled and pointed at the video tape in pieces on the floor.

JC hugged her even tighter, “We all love Stasia.”

JC stood up and pulled Lyn to her feet, “OK. What do we do with the girl in our living room?”

Stasia grinned, “Our?”

JC rolled his eyes, “That is what you picked up on?”

“I’m a girl. ‘Our’?”

“Stasia...”

“JC, how well do you know me? Do you REALLY think I’m going to drop this without a real answer?”

“Anastasia!”

“Joshua!” She stuck her tongue out.

“You are impossible! I haven’t talked about it, but I wanted to talk to Lyn about calling this home....when we’re here.” Tears began rolling down Lyn’s cheeks again and JC smiled, “Would you look what you did again! Stasia you need to stop making my girlfriend cry.”

“I love you both.” Lyn beamed.

“OK, we need to go chat with Amanda.” Stasia began walking out of the room.

JC threw his arm around Lyn’s shoulders, “This should be interesting.”

The three of them walked into the living room and Lyn began laughing. Chris and Lance were both sitting on the couch with their arms crossed glaring at Amanda. No one was talking and Amanda was looking very uncomfortable.

“Guys, why are you sitting here looking evil?”

Chris didn’t even look away from Amanda, “We don’t like her.”

Stasia sat down on Lance’s lap, “Harry honey, stop it. She came here to help. Didn’t you Amanda?”

“I have so much to make up to all of you. I wan to help in any way I can.”

“We need to know everything. We need to know how you got this stuff. What Reagan has told you, how far you are willing to go with this and why?”

Amanda starred at her, “What do you want to know? Where do you want me to start?”

The doorbell rang and Lyn looked up at JC with crazed eyes, “WHY? WHY did you let me sleep in?” She tried to tuck in her shirt while basting the turkey.

“I didn’t LET you sleep in! I slept in too. I didn’t mean to, but we were up until eight o’clock talking to Amanda.” He jogged to the front of the house to answer the door. Lance and Stasia were standing there with their arms full of food and wine. JC took a huge basket of bread from Stasia, kissed her cheek and smiled, “Happy Thanksgiving.”

They all walked back into the kitchen as Lyn dropped a pot full of potatoes and water onto the floor, “CRAP!” She bent down to begin cleaning up the mess and when she heard people walk in she bumped her head on an open drawer, “CRAP!”

Stasia ran over, “Hey now, let me help you with that.” She set the pot on the counter and helped her friend back up, “Rough start?”

“Late start. We over slept and now I’m running behind. I haven’t started Justin’s cobbler or Joey’s pasta.” She rubbed the top of her head.

“OK, this is not a problem. Harry honey, you and JC peel more potatoes. Lyn, hand me that baking dish and I’ll start in on the cobbler. You tackle the pasta.”

Everyone scattered in different directions and in no time, dinner was completely under control. Lyn basted the turkey again and then took down four wine glasses. JC pulled the cork out of the first wine bottle and filled each glass, “I’d like to make a toast, while it’s just the four of us.”

“What did you have in mind C?” Lance took his glass.

“I want to make a toast to relationships tested, that come out stronger in the end. To a speedy end to all of the insanity and a beautiful wedding. Lyn and I want to thank you both for being the type of friends we are proud to have.” He held up his glass and they all did the same.

Lance hugged JC as Lyn hugged Stasia. Lance nodded his head, “You guys are the best.”

Lyn took JC’s hand, “In my family, holidays have always been so important. Holidays were days we gave up our arguments, gave up our grudges and celebrated just being together. I would like today to be a day like that.”

Lance smiled, “I think today would be a good day to start fresh. I realize not everything is done and over with, but we have new hope and we should take hold of that and move on.”

The four of them stood in the kitchen and agreed to put the past in the past and move on, helping one another and supporting each other. Lyn grinned as the doorbell rang, “This should be just about everyone else.”

She pulled the front door open and was quickly scooped off of her feet, “Happy Thanksgiving L.S.!” Justin spun her around.

“You seem to be in a great mood.” She kissed his cheek and the squirmed until he put her down.

“I couldn’t be happier. I have you here, I have the guys, and look who else I decided to force to join us.” He pushed the door open completely and Lyn immediately lunged at Morgan who had Jonathon holding one of her hands and Stephen perched on her hip.

“HI!” Morgan winked at Lyn, “Have enough food for three more?”

“Always! JC made me buy a ridiculously huge turkey.”

Justin smiled, “I’ve got a salad in the car big enough to feed fifty.” He ran back out to his car as Lyn led Morgan and the boys into the house.

Lyn held out her arms and Stephen jumped to her, “HI!”

“Hi yourself!” She kissed both of his cheeks, “Are you hungry.”

“UH HUH!” His little blonde head bobbed up and down.

Justin returned with an enormous bowl heaped with salad. Lyn smiled brightly, “I wish the fans could see this. You guys having a traditional pot luck Thanksgiving. No fancy restaurant, no bedazzled clothes. Just family and friends enjoying a meal together. This is the stuff they miss out on, you guys being human.”

Justin looked at her thoughtfully, “You know what? This is the stuff I don’t want to share. Does that make me horrible?”

Lyn shook her head, “Not at all. That makes you even more human.”

They all walked into the kitchen and Lyn noticed JC didn’t look the least bit shocked to see Morgan or Justin’s brothers. After they all exchanged hugs and Lance and JC inspected Justin’s salad they began telling stories of their favorite Thanksgiving memories.

Stasia’s story about Noah trying to carve his first turkey was interrupted by the doorbell. JC went to answer and led Joey and Angela into the kitchen. Lance had appointed himself bartender, so he took drink orders while Stasia and Lyn checked pots and pans as they bubbled on the stove. Joey was dipping his finger in the pasta sauce and Justin was helping his brothers steal cookies from the counter. JC stood back and smiled taking in the chaotic scene around him. This was exactly why he had bought this house, so he could have all of his loved ones around whenever he wanted.

Lyn smiled brightly as she heard Dev call from the front door, “Anybody home?”

Lyn and JC ran to the front hall to greet Dev and Ryan as the walked into the house. They all hugged and Lyn rubbed her sister’s ever expanding belly, “Hello in there!” She beamed at Dev, “You look pregnant! Not big and fat...PREGNANT!”

Ryan smiled, “Doesn’t she look amazing?”

JC kissed Dev’s forehead, “She always looks amazing, now she glows too.”

Dev punched him lightly in the stomach, “You can’t flirt with me anymore, I’m a married lady.”

“No beating up Uncle JC!” Lyn rubbed JC’s stomach.

JC took Dev’s arm and led her to the back of the house where Justin was trying to find the football game on the TV. All of the girls giggled and felt Dev’s stomach as the guys discussed the outcome of the Lions/Greenbay game earlier.

The chatter and laughter stopped abruptly when Chris and Dani walked into the large family room adjacent to the kitchen with Amanda. Justin froze with his finger on the channel button, the TV silently flipped from one station to the next. Joey dropped his cookie to the floor and Angela gasped loudly. The silence was broken by Morgan who squeaked, “What in the HELL?”

Stasia stood up and pulled Amanda into the room by her elbow, “I take it you all remember Amanda.”

Justin’s cold eyes flashed, “She isn’t someone we’ll ever forget.”

Joey looked carefully at Chris, “What’s she doing here?”

Stasia looked at Joey, “I invited her.”

Morgan sat down hard, “What have I missed?”

Justin shook his head slowly, “Mor, I have no clue.”

Lance smiled at Amanda, “What can I get you to drink? A glass of wine? A soda? I think we’ve got a full bar.”

“Yeah we do.” JC agreed.

“I would love a glass of wine.” Amanda barely whispered.

“I would love an explanation.” Justin’s head whipped from Lance to Stasia.

Stasia cocked her head, “Justin, I invited her, isn’t that enough?”

“HELL NO!”

Stephen looked up at Justin, “Daddy says it’s not nice to curse.”

Justin looked down at his little brother, “HUH? OH! Yeah. Sorry buddy.”

Lance handed Amanda a glass of wine and she took a sip and then looked at Justin, “I’m here to help.”

“Help what? Finish Stasia off?”

“JUSTIN!” Stasia glared, “Amanda is here to help with Lyn’s case and to make amends for what happened to me. Now I would hope that you would think enough of my judgment to realize that I thought very carefully about all of this before inviting her to be here.”

“Right now I think your judgment is questionable.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but it doesn’t change the fact that I invited her.”

JC walked up next to Stasia, “J, she’s a guest in my home and she can help Lyn, you’re going to have to deal with this.”

Morgan lightly touched Justin’s hand, “Need a walk?”

“Yeah.” Justin stalked out of the room.

Morgan stopped as she passed Amanda, “Sorry about that. He’ll be fine when we get back.”

JC put the last plate away and sighed with relief, “I can’t believe we did it.”

“We made dinner for 15 people and nothing went wrong.”

JC smirked, “I seem to remember a pot of potatoes all over the floor.”

“Shut up.” She smiled as he kissed her lightly.

“So what do you think of this whole Amanda twist?”

“I think it could be a very good thing. Stasia seems to think we have gotten incredibly lucky, now she has to figure out how to use the information in Court, with using the stolen stuff. She says we can’t use the tapes of pictures because we’d have to explain how we got them. But apparently Amanda is going to be our star witness.”

“Never in a million years did I think I’d be happy to see that girl.”

“Me neither.”

JC leaned against the counter, “So, what do we do with the rest of our time in LA?”

She grinned evilly at him, “Snapdragon, we shop.”

“We shop?”

“This is the only opportunity we are going to have to go Christmas shopping. All you have to do is cover that mane and we shouldn’t have any problem. No one is going to expect THE JC Chasez to be shopping on the busiest shopping day of the year.”

“I see your point, but SHOPPING?”

“Come on JC, it’ll be fun! I bet you we can get it all finished in one day and then we don’t have to think about it.”

“Whatever you want Sweetpea.”

She kissed him, “So I was thinking about your whole, ‘this is our house thing’.”

“And?”

“And I think it’s a good idea.”

“I love that!”

“What about Orlando?”

“What about it?”

“Maybe it’s time you get out of Alex’s house...if you want. Today got me thinking about Christmas and how I’d love to decorate with you and wake up with you and just BE with you.”

“So do I move all of my crap in?”

“You do whatever you want to do.”

“I want to be with you. Maybe we could look for a house.”

“As in BUYING a house?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Wow. I hadn’t thought of buying real estate together.”

“Would you feel better if we got married first?”

“WHAT? Who said anything about getting married? Do you honestly think we’re ready for marriage JC?”

He slowly shook his head, “No I guess not.”

Lyn took both of his hands, “I can tell you right now, I love you with all my heart, but I really don’t think this is the best time to be thinking about marriage. I think that we have far too much going on right now to think about that. But when this mess with Reagan and Pwoers is over and we have time to breathe, I think we can discuss it again.”

“So what about the house?”

“Tell you what, I need to start thinking about buying a house anyway. So you help me pick out a house, and you live there and we go from there.”

He smiled, “That makes you feel better?”

She nodded, “That makes me feel better.”

“Whatever you want. I can’t seem to say no to you.”

“THAT, my love, is a VERY good thing.”