Chapter Fifty-Nine

(November 13-15, 2001 – Atlantis)

“It’s absolutely gorgeous here!” Laurie exclaimed as she looked out the window of the room that she was technically sharing with Hannah. It was a connecting room and JC and Lance were sharing a room on the other side of the door, making it easy for them to switch rooms later on. “The humidity is worse than Orlando though. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

“You won’t, it’s horrendous. Feeling sticky and like you can barely breathe… ugh.” Hannah grimaced and turned the air conditioner on high. “You’d never know it was November from this weather.”

“No kidding,” Laurie wiped away a small bead of sweat that was running down the side of her face. She looked in the direction of the connecting door. “I wonder if it’s this hot in the guy’s room.”

“Only one way to find out.” Hannah said and knocked on the door. Lance was in a towel when he answered it. Hannah grinned. “Well hello Lance!”

“It figures it would be you,” Lance chuckled and stepped aside to let them into the room.

“Well who else would be sharing a connecting room with you?” She asked. “Which bed is yours?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Lance shrugged and looked at Laurie. “C is just in the shower, he shouldn’t be too much longer, but you’ll have to excuse me while I get dressed.”

“But you’re my boyfriend and I’m pregnant with your child… I can’t watch?”

“Fine with me.” Lance shrugged again and started taking off his towel. Laurie yelped and ran back to her room. When she was gone, Lance kept the towel on and sat down on the bed beside Hannah. “JC has already unpacked, so I think he’s laid claim to this room.”

“As long as I’m with you and have a bed to sleep in, I don’t care what room I’m in.” Hannah told him. “Both rooms have the same view and the same stuff in them. I’m not picky.” She looked in the direction of the bathroom when she heard the shower stop. “I think I’m going to go back to my room before JC comes out of there in nothing but a towel.”

Lance rested his hand on Hannah’s thigh and nuzzled her neck. “But that’s all I’m wearing…”

“And you’re my boyfriend.” She smiled and patted his cheek. “I’ll see you at lunch baby.”

“Ok.” He replied and kissed her. “See you later.”

**********

“What time is your rehearsal with Tim today?” Michelle asked as she hung a few sundresses up in the closet, then she sat down on the bed and wiped her forehead.

“After lunch.” Chris looked at her with concern. “Are you all right? Do you need to lay down?”

“I’m fine Chris, it’s just really humid.”

“Are you sure?”

Michelle glared at him. “Chris, you’ve been like this since I told you I was pregnant. If you’re going to be like this through the whole pregnancy, I’m leaving you for Justin.”

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you…”

“Honey, nothing is going to happen to me. I’m not the first woman in the world to get pregnant and I won’t be the last.” She walked over to him and cupped his face in her hands. “Ok?”

Chris nodded and kissed her. “Ready for lunch?”

“I’ve been kind of queasy, but I’ll see what I can keep down.” She frowned. “And the there’s Laurie who hasn’t had any morning sickness at all.”

“Jealous?” Chris raised an eyebrow.

“Hell yeah!” Michelle exclaimed. “She’ll probably start showing after I do, too. It just isn’t fair.”

Chris laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Quit complaining and let’s go down to lunch.”

**********

Laurie had just grabbed her purse to go downstairs to join the others for lunch when there was a knock on the connecting door. The only person it could be was JC because Hannah had just left with Lance. She opened the door and JC had a stern expression on his face and he walked into the room, making Laurie walk backwards.

“So I understand that since you and Lance are dating and you’re having his baby that you get to see him naked...” JC moved so that Laurie had to keep walking backwards. “I don’t think I like that idea.”

“Josh, I…”

He had her backed up against the wall and smirked. “He also told me how fast you went back to your own room when he started to remove the towel.”

Laurie blushed. JC lifted her chin with his hand and made her look at him.

“Laur…” There was a twinkle in his eye that told her that he wasn’t angry. “You didn’t really want to see Lance in the buff, did you?”

“No, I was just kidding around.” She smiled up at him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You’re the only one I want to see in the buff.”

“That can be arranged,” JC leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Want to skip lunch?”

**********

(Later that afternoon)

“Man,” Michelle flopped down on the sofa in Laurie’s room. “Now that the guys aren’t around, I’m dying to do some sightseeing! Wanna come?”

“Sure, it will beat hanging around here all afternoon, since Stacy and Hannah chose to watch them rehearse.” Laurie replied.

“It’s only because Lance and Hannah are ‘new’ and Stacy has the hots for Tim McGraw.” Michelle suddenly smiled. “Though I can’t say that I blame her.”

Laurie laughed. “You’re bad, I’m going to tell Chris.”

“Go right ahead… and then he can tell you how he feels about Gwen Stefani.” Michelle smirked.

“Ah yes… works both ways I guess. So are we going out?”

“Just let me grab my purse and my cell…” She looked at the display. “Shit, the battery is dead. Do you have yours?”

“I forgot it at home.”

“Dammit.” Michelle thought for a moment. “Ok, I’ll just leave Chris a message on his voicemail telling him we’re going out for a few hours. Do you think we should take someone with us?”

Laurie shook her head. “We should be all right, I don’t want to bother anyone.”

“Yeah, I don’t think there’s that many fans around and if there are, they’ll be looking for the guys.”

(A few hours later)

“Why did you let me spend so much money?” Laurie moaned as she looked at her purchases. “I’m going to have to buy a new suitcase just to get this stuff home.”

“I saw a shop that sold those about ten minutes ago.” Michelle wiggled her eyebrows.

“NO!” Laurie exclaimed. “You are such a bad influence on me!”

Michelle snorted. “You just say that because that’s what JC tells you.”

“He’s not all wrong,” Laurie mumbled and started walking again. Then she stopped and sighed. “I’m tired of carrying all this, do you want to grab a taxi back to the hotel?”

“Yeah, I think…” Michelle looked at the small crowd of girls that was approaching them. “I think we have company.”

“What do you mean?” Laurie asked and Michelle motioned in front of her. Laurie closed her eyes. “Well if we’re going to get mobbed, I’m sitting down.”

Sure enough, Laurie and Michelle were quickly surrounded by a group of about twenty girls who immediately began taking pictures, asking questions and demanding autographs. They looked at each other helplessly and started signing. One of the questions was yelled more loudly than any of the others and Laurie froze when she heard it.

“Is it true that you’re pregnant?”

Laurie thought quickly and forced a laugh. “Does it look like I’m pregnant? Are you saying I’m fat?” She turned to Michelle. “Do I look fat?”

“No, no, no, you don’t look fat at all… I had just heard…” A fan started to say.

Because it wasn’t the response Michelle was expecting from Laurie, she choked back the giggles that were threatening to emerge. She could only shake her head and she refused to look at Laurie, because she knew if she did, all her effort would be for nothing. Fortunately the fans were flustered enough that the subject was dropped and Laurie and Michelle continued signing autographs and posing for pictures, because there was nothing else they could do.

“Ok, that’s enough for today.” Was heard as the crowd parted for the large black man that was approaching. He turned to the girls. “At least you left a message this time,” Dre muttered as they started walking towards the car. He picked up the bags that were scattered at their feet as the last of the fans dispersed. “The guys are worried sick because they haven’t been able to get a hold of you.” He looked at Michelle. “Where is your cell phone?”

“Dead battery.”

“And yours?” He looked at Laurie.

“I left it at home.”

“Man.” Dre chuckled and shook his head. “I’m supposed to bring you two back. There are three gentlemen who are anxiously waiting to speak to you.”

“Three?”

“JC, Lance and Chris.”

“Shit.” Laurie and Michelle uttered in unison. Michelle looked up at Dre with innocent eyes. “So… um… how much would it cost for you to leave us here? To pretend you didn’t find us?”

Laurie jumped on the bandwagon. “I’ll give you my firstborn? Ok, well maybe not.” She started to beg. “I’ll give you anything you want… just please don’t turn us in!”

Dre laughed and ushered them into the waiting limo and placed their packages in the trunk before the vehicle took them back to the hotel.

“You aren’t going to jail.” He continued to laugh.

“No, this will be worse than jail,” Michelle muttered and slouched in her seat.

The ride was silent except the occasional cough from Dre. When they arrived, the driver brought their packages in, while the guard ushered Laurie and Michelle past the fans and into the elevator.

“Ok, this is your last chance Dre… let us go and pretend you never saw us…” Laurie looked up at him and batted her eyelashes. “Please?”

Dre looked at her in disbelief. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be around these guys when they’re panicking? Let alone three of them at once? There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go. Besides, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Dre led them into JC and Lance’s room where they were waiting with Chris. All three of them looked furious. Laurie and Michelle would not move of their own accord, so Dre gave them a little push into the room.

“Thank you Dre, we can take it from here.” Lance dismissed him without a thought.

“Hold on,” Chris interjected. “Where were they?”

“Shopping downtown… they were surrounded by at least twenty fans when I got there.”

“Oh really?” JC raised his eyebrows and focused his gaze on Laurie. “Thank you Dre, we appreciate you bringing them back in one piece.”

“Hopefully they stay in one piece,” Dre muttered as he left the room.

“Sit down.” JC ordered and the girls shuffled over to the sofa, afraid to leave one another’s side.

Three pairs of eyes gazed intently at the two women sitting on the sofa. The pair of dark brown eyes glittered with fury and the three men guarded the door to the room, blocking any chance of escape.

“You know, I could have sworn we’ve had this conversation before.” Chris gritted his teeth as he tried to control his anger. “And if memory serves, I received a fat lip from JC the same night.” He paused. “But that’s not the issue here. You left a message for me, telling me where you were going to be. Fine. Why didn’t you take anyone with you?”

“I thought we’d be all right.” Laurie replied meekly. “We didn’t want to bother anyone.”

“Bother anyone?” Lance sputtered. “The bodyguards are paid to be bothered if one of us wants to go somewhere. Asking one of them to accompany you should not be an issue. Maybe we need to have a meeting with Johnny and get the girls their own bodyguards. Maybe then they wouldn’t be so concerned with bothering our bodyguards.”

“I think that just might be necessary Lance. Especially since they should both know better.” JC interjected.

“Not only that,” Chris said. “But you’re both pregnant. It’s not just yourselves you have to think about now. It’s the lives inside of you.”

Michelle looked up. “Chris…”

Chris held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. This conversation seems to be becoming fairly regular and I’m getting tired of repeating myself. We have to be down at the stage in fifteen minutes to practice and learn our marks. You two are not to leave this hotel.”

“Umm,” Laurie said hesitantly. “Can I just say something?”

“Go ahead.” JC nodded.

“Umm… about being pregnant...” She looked at them uncertainly. “When we were down there, one of the girls asked me if I was pregnant.”

JC and Lance visibly paled, but it was JC who spoke. “And?”

“I avoided the question. I asked them if I looked pregnant and then I asked them if they thought I was fat. Then I asked Michelle if I was fat.”

Lance’s mouth twitched and he swallowed back a laugh. He could see the other guys were doing the same thing. “That was a good answer. Thank you for telling us.”

There was a knock on the door.

“Come on guys, we have to go!” Justin yelled.

“Don’t leave the hotel.” JC reiterated. “And if you try to, Dre is right outside the door and has orders to stop you. He also has orders to go with you anywhere in the hotel. As Chris said, this isn’t over – we’ll see you when we get back.”

Laurie and Michelle looked at each other.

“We can’t even come and watch you?” Laurie asked in small voice and JC felt slightly guilty.

Lance shook his head before JC had a chance to speak. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”

“Fine, we won’t leave the hotel.” Michelle relented. “Have fun.”

Chris glared at them and stomped out of the room. JC and Lance just looked at them before they followed him out. Michelle and Laurie breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well,” Laurie began. “That wasn’t so bad.”

Michelle groaned and covered her face.

Chapter Sixty