(Less than one month later – September 4th,
2001)
“Hey stranger,” Lance greeted as he slid into the
chair opposite Laurie. “I haven’t seen
you since the TCA’s… how have you been?”
“You know how I’ve been, you call practically every
other day.” She teased. “Besides, since
Michael quit I’ve been doing all the accounting for FuMan… I’ve been busy.”
“So I heard… do you like it?”
“It keeps… my mind off things.”
Lance reached across the table and covered Laurie’s
hand with his own. When he spoke, he
spoke quietly. “You need to stop
running from him. He misses you
Laurie.”
“I miss him too, Lance.”
“Then why did you leave the way you did?”
He didn’t ask the question in a harsh tone of
voice, nor did he ask it to be rude. He
was simply curious. He wanted to help
make things better between one of his best friends and woman sitting across
from him.
Laurie shook her head. “It would have been too awkward in the morning.”
“Would it have?” He challenged softly. “You don’t think JC would have been
absolutely ecstatic to wake up with you lying next to him?”
“It’s not that I regret it Lance… it’s just…
something that shouldn’t have happened under the circumstances.” She cast a
weak glare at him. “I shouldn’t have
been left alone with him in the first place.”
“Sorry.” Lance said meekly. “It was either you or him and I have to work
with him.”
“H-he asked you…”
“He asked me to leave you alone for a bit so that
he could talk to you.”
“Oh.”
A silence fell over the table as they each looked
over their menu. The silence was
comfortable rather than awkward as Laurie digested the information that Lance
had just given her. Lance had no idea
that Laurie had some information of her own to share… and she wasn’t overly
enthusiastic about sharing it.
“Lance,” she said after their waitress had taken
their orders and removed their menus from the table. “There’s umm… there’s umm… something I-I need to tell you.”
Lance immediately sensed there was something wrong
and placed his water glass on the table.
The look he gave her was full of concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Lance,” she whispered and her face visibly
paled. “I think I might be pregnant.”
Lance froze.
“Have you taken a home test yet?”
“No, I keep putting off buying one.” She
explained. “I’m afraid of what the
result might be.”
“How late are you?”
“Two weeks, give or take a couple of day. I’m usually pretty regular.”
Lance thought quietly for a moment. “Is there any… possible chance… that if you
are pregnant… that the baby is Craig’s?”
“No.” There was no hesitation in her answer.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Lance rubbed his hands over his face and leaned
back in his chair. He sat looking at
her with his hand over his mouth in thought.
“This isn’t something you can put off any longer.”
“I know.” Laurie stared down at her hands.
“Was it the night of the TCA’s?”
“I don’t think so.”
Lance thought for a few more minutes. “After we’re done here we’re going to find a
drugstore and buy you a test. Then
we’re going to go back to your house and you’re going to take that test… got
it?”
“Laurie. We
are finding a drugstore and you are going to take that test.” The tone of his
voice left no room for argument.
Laurie slumped down in her chair a little. “Yes sir.”
“Good.” He smiled and took a sip of his water.
Laurie changed the subject. “So how was Mexico? You were in Turks and Caicos, right?”
“No, Turks and Caicos isn’t until the 9th.” Lance grinned. “But Mexico was great, it didn’t even feel like I was working. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.”
“It sounds like it was fun.”
“You were more than welcome to come,” he
laughed. “I invited you.”
“I know, but you had Hannah there and it’s just… it
seems like it was a place for couples.”
“JC didn’t take Alexandria.” Lance informed her
quietly.
“Lance, you are so bad.” She laughed. “That’s how I got myself into this
predicament in the first place, we don’t need your encouragement. Though I guess I could have always hung out
with Michelle.” Lance mumbled something
that Laurie didn’t quite hear. “What
was that?”
“I said maybe if you had gone, then Chris might
have come out of his hotel room for more than rehearsals and the concert.”
“Where was Michelle?” Laurie asked.
“In the room with him.” Lance snickered. “Except for the one time Joey caught them on
the beach… it was like four in the morning.”
Laurie bit her lip and tried not to laugh. “Oh my.”
“I just think they were so glad that the tour is
over that they had to celebrate.” He shrugged.
“Lance?”
“Hmm?”
“I really don’t think I want to know if I’m
pregnant.”
“Why not?”
Tears filled her eyes. “Because what will I do if I am?”
Lance got out of his chair and walked around to
Laurie’s side of the table. He
enveloped her in his arms and held her tightly while stroking her hair.
“Don’t cry,” he tried to soothe her. “I’m sure we’ll think of something. We don’t
know anything for sure yet.”
**********
Laurie shrank back in the passenger seat when Lance
opened the door for her. He had his
hand held out and he was waiting for her to respond.
“Come on Laurie, I’m not doing this on my own.”
Laurie shook her head furiously. “No Lance, I don’t want to.”
“Laurie, if I have to reach in there, unbuckled
your seatbelt, hoist you over my shoulder and carry you inside, that’s what
I’ll do.”
Laurie was still for a moment before she unbuckled
her seatbelt, grabbed her purse and slid out of the car. Lance closed the door behind her, locked it
and set the alarm. He took her hand
comfortingly into his own and gave it a squeeze.
“I’ll help you get through this, ok? I’m not going to abandon you.”
Laurie nodded her head and walked through the door
of the drugstore that Lance had opened for her. They walked up and down the aisles until they found the home pregnancy
tests.
“I didn’t think there would be so many of them,”
Lance whispered. “Which one do you want
to get?”
“None of them?” She suggested hopefully.
Lance turned his head to glare at her. “Do I need to pick one?”
“Why, are you pregnant?”
Lance gritted his teeth and counted to ten. “I meant do I need to pick one for you.”
“I don’t need one.”
Lance turned his entire body toward her and placed
his hands on her shoulders. “Laurie,
this isn’t funny anymore. By not
finding out if you’re pregnant, you could be endangering your health as well as
the baby’s.”
“Ok, ok.” Laurie closed her eyes and reached her
hand out to the display in front of her.
She moved her hand randomly and chose a box after a few seconds. Her eyes opened and she pulled it off the
hook it was on. “There. Can we pay for this and leave now?”
“Yes.” Lance breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for finally co-operating.”
They paid for the test and walked out to Lance’s
vehicle in silence. He opened the door
for her and helped her in before walking around to the driver’s side and
sliding into the car. He put his
seatbelt on and started the engine.
“Lance?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry for being such a brat today.” She
apologized. “I’m just so nervous,
because I don’t know what I’m going to do if I’m pregnant and I’m going to ruin
JC’s life and…”
“Laurie,” Lance turned and cupped her face in his
hands. “Shh… you’re getting yourself
all worked up when you don’t even know if you’re pregnant for sure. You need to try to relax before you make
yourself sick.”
Laurie looked at him. “What did I ever do to get a friend as good as you?”
Lance just smiled.
**********
“How long does the package say we have to wait
before we see something on the stick?” Lance asked.
“Five minutes.” Laurie sat down on the bed beside
him.
Since Michelle was in New York with Chris while he
did a voice over for ‘The Fairly Odd Parents’ cartoon, Laurie had the apartment
in LA to herself.
“I hate waiting.” Laurie was tapping her foot.
“Me too.” Lance reached over and grasped her
hand. “Did you set the timer?”
“Yes.”
For the next five minutes, the air was filled with
tension. Lance got off the bed and
paced around the bedroom. He refused to
look at his watch. He was sure that
would make time move slower. When the
timer finally started to buzz, Lance and Laurie looked at each other with
apprehensive expressions. Laurie took a
deep breath and walked into the bathroom.
Lance was right behind her.
“Oh…” Laurie felt weak when she saw the results.
“Laurie…”
The test was positive.