JC woke up the morning after the VMA’s to an empty
bed and the sound of Alexandria being sick in the bathroom. He groaned and his first thought was to wrap
his pillow around his ears and ignore the sound. But his conscious won over and he threw the covers on the bed
back before padding into the bathroom to check on her.
When he opened the door, Alexandria was in the
middle of pulling herself off the floor.
She had a hand pressed to her forehead and she reached for the facecloth
that JC was holding out for her.
“Thank you.” She said. Her face was a little pale.
“I guess the morning sickness is kicking in, huh?”
Alexandria glared at him for stating the obvious
and crawled back into the hotel’s king size bed. “Can you please order me some orange juice and toast?”
“Yeah.” JC turned his back to her and reached for
the phone. He placed their breakfast
order and laid back on the bed beside her.
“What time is your flight?”
“Four-thirty.” She yawned and fluffed up the pillow
beneath her head. “But I might just
stay in New York with you guys and go to the Michael Jackson thing.”
“It’s not a ‘thing’ Dria.” JC huffed. “It’s really
important to me and the guys. That’s
why we’ve rearranged our schedules to be here. Besides, if you’re not feeling
that great, maybe it’s better that you don’t go.”
“You don’t want me there?”
“Did I say that?”
“You implied it.”
“I didn’t, I just…” He sat up and swung his legs
over the side of the bed. “Just forget
it. Do what you want.”
“Just go home Alexandria. You didn’t want to be here in the first place – remember?”
“But…”
“Go. Home.” He told her. “You can get the door when room service comes, I need to have a
shower and get dressed. I have the
Michael Jackson ‘thing’ to get to.”
JC made sure to slam the bathroom door behind him.
**********
The shrill ringing of the telephone sounded through
Laurie’s bedroom at five o’clock in the morning. She rolled over and groaned, thankful that Michelle was in New
York with Chris, because a phone ringing that early in the morning was just wrong.
Michelle would have had a conniption.
“Hello?” Her sleep heavy voice managed to say.
“Morning… did I wake you?”
Laurie groaned again. “Lance, it’s o’dark thirty in the morning. Of course
you woke me.”
“Sorry.”
Laurie could practically hear Lance grinning
through the phone. “You should be happy
Michelle isn’t here, she’d reach through the phone and strangle you for calling
so early.”
“Thank you for reminding me,” Lance laughed. “I
have to call and wake up the happy couple.”
“Lance,” Laurie yawned. “Is there a purpose to your call?”
“Of course. I was wondering how you’re feeling and
if you’ve called to make a doctor’s appointment yet.”
“I’m feeling fine and no, I haven’t made an
appointment yet.”
“And the reason behind that would be…”
“Umm…” Laurie cleared her throat and tried to think
of a plausible reason. “I’ve just been
really busy with work, trying to understand how Michael has the files organized
and…”
“You need
to see a doctor, just to make sure everything is all right with you and the
baby.”
“I know, I just…” she sighed. “I’ll get around to it, all right?”
“Promise?”
“Yeah, I promise.”
“Ok. I’ve
got to wake up the other’s now, we need to leave soon for this Michael Jackson
tribute rehearsal. But I’ll call you
later?” Lance said.
“I’ll be around.
If I’m not here or at work, try my cell phone.”
“If I get you on your cell phone, you’d better be
at the doctor’s office.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“All right.
I’ve gotta go, but I’ll definitely call you later.”
“Ok… have fun today Lance.”
“You too,” he said softly. “Don’t work too hard.”
“I won’t.
Bye.”
“Bye.”
As soon as Lance ended his call with Laurie, he
called around to the other rooms to make sure everyone was awake. The reception he received from Michelle was
anything but warm. He had just booted
up his laptop when his phone rang. It
was Johnny’s name on the caller ID. He
got comfortable in his chair.
“Hey Johnny, what’s up?”
“Are you busy right now Lance?”
“Not really, I was just going to check my
email. Do you need to see me?”
“Please.”
“Ok, I’ll be right there.” Lance grinned and ended
the call.
He whistled as he walked down the hallway to
Johnny’s room. It wasn’t unusual for
Johnny to call one of them down to his room and the man always had a good
reason for it. Lance figured it
probably had something to do with their performance today or something
regarding his movie, since Johnny helped with the project.
Johnny’s door was open when Lance got there, so he
knocked twice and pushed it open the rest of the way. Johnny had a magazine open on the table and he was sitting in
front of it. It was immediately obvious
to Lance that something was bothering Johnny because he was drumming his
fingers on the table. Lance sat down
beside him.
Before Lance could say anything, Johnny pushed the
magazine toward Lance and pointed out the pictures that graced the layout of
the center page. They were pictures of
Lance and Laurie attending the TCA’s together, which by itself wasn’t a big
deal. But there were also pictures of
Lance and Hannah in Mexico and then Lance with Laurie buying the pregnancy test
last week.
In the last set of pictures, Lance was resting his
hand on the small of Laurie’s back while they looked at the display of
tests. The next few pictures showed
them paying for their purchase, leaving the store and getting into Lance’s
vehicle. Lance wanted to bury his face
in his hands. This wasn’t good.
“Can you please explain this to me Lance, because
I’m really confused.” Johnny asked. “Is
Laurie pregnant?”
“That’s what the home test said.”
“And you’re dating Hannah?”
“Yes.”
“Are you the father of Laurie’s baby?”
Lance had opened his mouth to answer Johnny’s
question, when the door to Johnny’s hotel room burst open and an irate JC
stormed in, holding the same magazine that Johnny had shown Lance.
“What the fuck is this, Bass?” JC demanded and
threw the paper at Lance.
“I…”
“When I told you to watch out for Laurie, I didn’t
tell you to sleep with her.” JC
yelled. “What the hell were you
thinking?”
“I…”
“And now you’ve knocked her up.” An expression of
emotional pain crossed JC’s face and he lowered his voice. “You got her pregnant.”
“JC, you…”
“Don’t.” JC held up a hand. “I don’t even want to look at you right now,
let alone hear your voice. I hope you
and Laurie have a nice life.”
JC left Johnny’s room and slammed the door behind
him. Lance covered his eyes with his
hand and groaned. He couldn’t believe
the situation he had gotten himself into.
“Lance.” Johnny placed a hand on Lance’s
shoulder. “Can you please explain to me
what is going on?”
“Johnny,” Lance sighed. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but JC was having an affair with
Laurie. In fact, he was ready to leave
Alexandria for her.”
Johnny sucked in his breath in shock.
“When JC told Laurie that Alexandria was pregnant,
she ended things between them. She did
what she thought was right. And now
she’s pregnant with JC’s child.”
Johnny closed his eyes in disbelief. “How long has this been going on?”
“Since April.” Lance went on to explain. “But
listen, I can talk to Hannah and tell her what’s going on. It would probably be better for everyone
involved if JC continues to think that Laurie is carrying my baby. I know Hannah will understand.”
“And what’s going to happen if JC finds out the
truth?”
“I don’t know.” Lance said honestly. “I guess we’ll fall off that bridge when we
come to it. I do know that I need to
call Laurie and give her a heads up as to what’s going on. I don’t want her to find out the way JC
found out.”
**********
JC was distraught as he left Johnny’s room. He needed someone to talk to and right now
his options were limited. He wouldn’t
talk to Alexandria even if he wanted to.
He couldn’t talk to Lance for obvious reasons and Joey and Justin had
already left for the rehearsal, which left Chris or Michelle.
He stood in front of the door for several minutes
before he decided to knock on it. Chris
opened it and it looked like he had just gotten out of the shower.
“Sorry,” JC apologized. “I don’t want to interrupt anything, but I need to talk to
Michelle… is she around?”
“Yeah, hang on, she’s just putting her make-up on.”
Chris told him. “You look kind of pale,
are you ok?”
JC just shook his head and sat in the most
convenient chair while he waited for Michelle.
He was thankful that she wasn’t like Alexandria and didn’t take forever
to do something when it came to her appearance.
Chris disappeared into the bathroom and Michelle
emerged seconds later with a concerned look on her face. She knelt down beside his chair and touched
his knee. “JC? Honey, what’s wrong?”
“Laurie’s pregnant.” He ignored the way her jaw
fell open. “With Lance’s child. It was in today’s edition of the Enquirer.”
“Now JC, you know that the Enquirer isn’t the best
source for information… besides, I think Laurie would have told me if she was
pregnant.”
“They had pictures of her buying the home pregnancy
test.” His eyes shone with unshed tears.
“It was very obvious what they were shopping for. And they have pictures of Lance and Laurie
paying for it.”
Michelle looked up at him. “Are you sure the baby is Lance’s?” She
asked softly.
“I just asked him.
He’s in Johnny’s room and he didn’t deny it when I confronted him.”
“I really don’t think that Lance or Laurie would do
something like that to you. There has
to be some other explanation, because it just doesn’t make sense to me.” She
looked behind her as Chris left the bathroom to get dressed. He gave her an odd look and she shook her head. He shrugged and headed into the bedroom part
of the suite. “Listen, we leave for
Turks and Caicos tomorrow morning.
Maybe you should talk to Lance on the plane… find out what’s going on.”
“Yeah I guess,” JC sighed and pushed his hands
through his hair. “God knows I won’t
have any time to do it myself today.”
**********
Lance practically raced back to his room to call
Laurie. He knew he didn’t have much
time because they had to leave soon, but he had to get through to her. He glanced at the clock and winced. It was only thirty minutes since the last
time they spoke. She wasn’t going to be
happy with being woken up twice. He dialed
her number and it rang twice before it was picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hi Laurie.” Lance cringed and waited for a negative
reaction.
“What is it this time, Lance?” Her voice held
nothing but amusement.
“Umm… I need to tell you something and I think you
should be sitting down for this.”
“I’m laying down, does that count?”
“Listen, you know how you hate publicity?”
An ominous chill ran down Laurie’s spine. “Yes…”
“Well you’re about to get a lot of it.”
“Excuse me?”
Lance sighed.
“The Enquirer published pictures of you and I from the drugstore when we
purchased the home pregnancy test.”
Laurie froze and felt her breath catch in her
throat.
“Johnny called me into his room this morning, I
told him the truth about everything, including your affair with JC.”
“Lance…”
“Laurie, that’s not even the half of it.”
“There’s more?”
“Johnny asked me straight out if the baby was mine
and before I could answer, JC came barging into Johnny’s room. He had seen the same article.”
“Oh shit.” Laurie whispered.
“Laurie, JC thinks the baby is mine. And I didn’t correct him.”
“WHAT?” Laurie sat up in her bed.
“It’s better this way,” Lance explained
hurriedly. “This way the media doesn’t
find out that JC cheated on his wife and Alexandria doesn’t find out
either. Yeah, JC is a little upset
right now, but it’s something he’s going to have to get over.”
“Lance, this isn’t right, we have to tell JC the
truth.”
“We can’t.”
“Lance.” Laurie rested her head against her
hand. “I love you. I do.
But not the way I love JC. I
appreciate what you’re trying to do, but…”
“I may have also told Johnny that you and I are
going to pretend to date.”
“You what?” Laurie was shocked. “Lance you can’t do that, what about
Hannah?”
“Hannah will understand once I explain everything
to her.”
“No Lance, you and Hannah have waited forever for
each other, I’m not going to be the one to interfere with that.”
“Laurie, believe me when I say that it’s better
this way for everyone. As long as JC is
with Alexandria, he can’t know the truth.
And if that means telling a few extra non-truths along the way to
protect him, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Laurie sighed.
“I suppose I have no other choice but to go along with your idea.”
“Not at this time.” Lance said sadly. “I’m sorry I have to put you through this…”
“I want to protect JC too, Lance.” Laurie said
softly. “I think it’s the least I can
do.”
“Ok.” Lance breathed a sigh of relief. “I have to go now, but I’ll call you from
Turks and Caicos and I’ll see you when I get back.”
“All right.” Laurie said. “I’ll see you in a few days.”