Chapter Fifty-Three
(September 11, 2001)
“Two o’clock in the morning,” Laurie grumbled as
she pulled out of LAX’s vast parking lot.
“You’re lucky I like you or else I would have left you here.”
“You wouldn’t have left me here and you know it.” Michelle laughed. “Besides, it isn’t my fault my flight was late.”
“You seem pretty sure of that.” Laurie laughed.
“What, that you wouldn’t have left me here or that
the flight was late?”
“Either.” Laurie grinned.
Michelle laughed and stuck her tongue out at Laurie
and they fell into a comfortable silence.
They were stopped at a red light when Laurie became aware of Michelle’s
gaze on her.
“What?”
“I hear you’re pregnant.”
Laurie couldn’t help but wince. She didn’t say anything, but she nodded her
head in affirmation. Michelle’s eyes
were still studying her carefully.
“Is it JC’s baby or Lance’s?”
Laurie winced again because she didn’t want to lie
to Michelle, but she felt that the fewer people who knew about Lance’s plan the
better. And Michelle was almost certain
to tell Chris.
“It’s Lance’s.”
“Really.” Michelle said. The tone of her voice indicated that she didn’t believe Laurie.
“Really.” Laurie clenched her teeth together and
prayed that Michelle had nothing else to say on the matter. But knowing Michelle as she did, she knew it
was too much to hope for.
“I don’t believe you. I really don’t think that you or Lance would do something like
that to JC.”
“You’re welcome to believe what you want, but I
know this baby I’m carrying is Lance’s.”
“Ok.” Michelle shrugged and was silent for a
minute. Laurie thought that maybe the
subject had been dropped. “You know,
that really pisses me off.”
“It’s not like it was planned.” Laurie told her.
“I realize that.
But Chris and I have been trying for a few months to get pregnant and it
just happened for you.” She
paused. “Not only that, but the man you
love – the man you claim to love –
had to find out about your pregnancy in the National Enquirer. Do you know how much that hurt him?”
“You’ve spoken to him about this?” She whispered.
Michelle scoffed.
“Who do you think he came to after he confronted Lance?”
Laurie was silent.
“Look, I’m not going to tell you what you should
do. But JC won’t even speak to Lance
unless he deems it absolutely necessary.
I’ve never experienced so much tension between the guys. Chris is trying his best to stay out of it,
Joey is Lance’s best friend and Justin is siding with JC.”
Laurie pulled into the driveway of their apartment
and turned the engine off. “I didn’t realize.”
“I don’t think Lance would want you to worry.”
Michelle said and lifted her luggage out of the trunk. “But congratulations
anyway. It would actually be kind of
cool if I got pregnant around now, because then our kids would only be a couple
months apart.”
“That would be nice,” Laurie sighed wistfully and
felt even worse about lying to Michelle.
She unlocked their apartment door and let Michelle go in first. Busta and Korea were dancing around at their
feet. “I’m pretty tired, I’m going to
go to bed.”
“All right, I’m not going to be far behind you, I
just need to take the dogs out. I’ll
unpack in the morning.”
“Night.”
“Night Laur.”
(A few hours later – 6:30am Pacific Time)
Michelle had only been asleep for a couple of hours
when the phone beside her rang. She
glanced at the clock beside her bed with bleary eyes and blinked. She buried her head in her pillow and
reached blindly for the phone.
“Hello?”
“Michelle, its Bev.”
“Hey Bev,” she yawned. “Chris isn’t here.”
“I know, he called me from New York last night
while he was waiting for his connecting flight. Have you heard from him or any of the other guys since they got
home?”
“Not yet,” Michelle tuned into the worried tone of
Bev’s voice. “What’s going on?”
“I think you should turn the news on.” Bev told
her.
“Ok.” Michelle carried her phone into the living
room with her and turned the TV on. The images from New York that filled the
screen stunned her and she sat down.
“Oh my God.”
“What time was their flight home? Chris told me, but I can’t remember at the
moment.”
“Eleven-thirty last night… hang on while I check my
email, there might be something there from him.” There was a pause while Michelle booted up her computer. “I can’t get in Bev, it’s giving me a
connection error.”
“Probably because the phone lines are jammed with
people trying to get a hold of family and friends.” She sighed. “I’m going to
let you go so that the lines are open in case he tries to call.”
“All right Bev.” Michelle could hardly drag her
eyes from the TV. “I love you.”
“I love you too Michelle. Tell Chris to call me if you hear from him.”
“I will.” Michelle hung up the phone and walked to
Laurie’s room and knocked on the door.
“Laurie?”
There was a muffled noise from behind the door and
Michelle heard Laurie get out of bed and shuffle across the carpet. The door opened a second later.
“What time is it?”
“It’s quarter to seven, but this is really
important.”
Laurie followed Michelle out to the living room and
as soon as she saw what was happening, her eyes widened in horror and she
brought a hand up to her mouth.
They spent the next couple of hours watching the
events unfold. It was almost ten
o’clock when the phone rang. Michelle
looked at the caller ID and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Chris, please tell me you and the others are home
safe in Orlando.”
“We’re all right, everyone is at my house. We got in around two this morning. How are you and Laurie doing?”
“We’re scared Chris. Absolutely terrified.
It’s like the world is falling down around us and we don’t know why.”
“I know honey.” He said softly. “I just wish I could be there with you, but
since all the airports are shut down, that isn’t possible. I hated flying before, I don’t know how I’m
going to do it now.”
“Chris, as soon as the airports re-open, I’m
getting on the first flight to Orlando.
I’ll drive across the country if I have to.”
“We can wait until the airports open,” he
sighed. “This is frickin’ unbelievable,
we were just in New York.” They were both silent for a moment. “Are you going to go into the office today?”
“No, everything is pretty much shut down as a
precaution. No one is supposed to go
anywhere unless they have to.”
“You better hope your boss doesn’t fire you.”
Michelle snorted.
“I’m sure he could find some way to punish me for missing work.”
“I bet he could,” Chris laughed. “I hear he’s really mean.”
“Yeah, but he’s never around, so I never really
have to work.”
“I have no answer for that.” He laughed again. Lance was poking him and motioning for the
phone. “I’ll let you go, Lance wants to
talk to Laurie. Just tell her to hang
up when she’s done. I love you and I’ll
see you as soon as possible.”
“I love you too, Chris.” She said softly. “Don’t forget to call your mom.”
“Trust me, she’d never let me forget it if I didn’t
call her.” He made a kissing noise.
“Here’s Lance.”
Michelle
passed the phone to Laurie and mouthed ‘Lance’ before she went into the kitchen
to make herself something to eat.
“Hey Laur,” Lance said quietly as he watched JC
frown and leave the room. “How are you
feeling?”
“Better than a lot of other people are, I’m sure.”
She replied. “But I guess this means
that you won’t be flying here to make sure I go to the doctor.”
“I can fly out as soon as the airports reopen,” he
told her. “I wouldn’t get too smug
about it.”
Laurie laughed.
“It’s all right, I’ll just get Michelle to take me, she’s almost as bad
as you are.”
“And you’ll actually go?” Lance asked suspiciously.
“I promise.” Laurie couldn’t help but smile. “Lance, I’m sorry for being such a pain in
the ass about this. I don’t know why
you stay friends with me.”
“Maybe because you’re carrying my child.” He said
innocently.
Laurie snorted.
“If I knew the guys weren’t right there beside you, I’d seriously question
your sanity.” She paused. “So… how’s
everyone?”
Lance knew that by ‘everyone’ she meant JC. “He’s still upset. He left the room just as Chris handed me the phone.”
“Oh.” There was a sudden tightness in her chest and
she felt tears prick her eyes. “I don’t
like hurting him, Lance.” She whispered.
“I shouldn’t be coming between you guys. I don’t want to do this.
I don’t want to lie.”
Lance walked outside and took the phone with him so
that no one could hear his side of the conversation. He closed the door behind him and looked out over Chris’
backyard. Everything was so calm that
it almost made him forget the chaos happening in New York City.
“Laurie, we’ve had this discussion before. You’re actually doing me a favor, because if
you stay with me, then it doesn’t look like I’ve left my pregnant girlfriend
for someone else. Can you imagine the
hell PR would have to deal with?” His
mouth twitched as he thought about it.
“Actually…”
“No Lance, you’re not making their job any harder.”
She laughed. “You sounded like Chris
when you made that comment.”
“He must be rubbing off on me.”
“Only after six years,” she said wryly. “I should let you go instead of running up
Chris’ phone bill.”
“All the more reason to stay on the phone.”
“Lance.”
“All right.” He laughed. “I’m going to
call you everyday and check up on you.
And if Michelle tells me that you didn’t go to the doctor, I will come out there and take you
myself.”
“Yes sir.” She replied.
“I’ll talk to you later, ok?”
“All right.
Bye Lance.”