Now and Forever

By: Jennifer

Tis The Season

“MAMA MAMA MAMA!!!!” Janey heard the little voice and running feet coming screeching towards her followed by a serious of giggles. Janey could tell that voice and giggle a mile away. It was that of her beautiful daughter Kate. “Mommy, Dada chase!” Kate said as she buried her head inside of Janey’s skirt. Janey wanted to go and hug her daughter but she was up to her elbows in turkey stuffing.

“Where’s your daddy sweetie,” Janey said as she went to wash her hands while Kate hung on to her skirt. Janey could see her husband peeking around the corner ready to attack at any second. Busta and Korea came running into the room and tugged at Chris’ pant legs and he tried to brush them away.

“Beat it,” he said to them softly so that Kate wouldn’t hear him. “SURPRISE!” he screamed as he came out from around the corner. Kate shrieked and clung closer to her mother and Chris came and scooped her up in his arms. “Tickle torture!” he said as he started tickling the toddler. Kate started laughing uncontrollably. If there was anything that Kate got from her mother it was that she was very ticklish and loved to laugh. “Should we tickle your mommy Katie bug??” Chris asked his daughter.

“Tickle Mommy! Tickle Mommy!” the child replied as she reached out for her mother.

“You heard her, I have to obey my daughters wishes,” Chris said as he lunged towards Janey. She started immediately giggling and went to put the baby down before she dropped her flat on her head. Janey erupted into giggles and tried to get out of the kitchen where everything was being prepared for dinner tonight. All of their friends and family would be arriving soon and she had so much to do.

“Okay enough you two!” Jay said to her husband as she kissed him. “If you aren’t helping then go upstairs and entertain Kate for a while. She’s not going to see you for the next month.” Janey said. Chris and the rest of NSYNC had one more month left on their current tour and Janey and Kate were going to sit this part out. They had traveled with NSYNC part time during this tour because Chris just couldn’t bear to be away from the two of them, but Janey really wanted to get Kate into school and into “normal life” as opposed to that of a pop star. Janey wouldn’t trade her life for the world, she thought, as she watched her daughter, who was the apple of both Janey and Chris’ eye, and Chris playing together. He was really going to miss the little girl while he was away but it would only be a month and Janey and Kate would be coming out to visit a couple of times.

Janey headed back towards the kitchen and turned on the stereo as she was walking by. The music of Boys II Men Christmas CD went blaring through the house as Chris cringed. He followed her into the kitchen after he got Kate occupied with some toys. “Christmas music already?” he said as he came up behind his wife and put his arms around her.

“Chris, its Thanksgiving! Of course we can start listening to Christmas music. You’re lucky the tree isn’t up!” Janey loved Christmas; it was her favorite time of the year. This year would be very special too because it would be the first year that Kate really understood the whole idea of Santa Claus. The presents had already started arriving from Connecticut and from Pennsylvania for the little girl and Janey was doing the best she could to hide them all. “And you know the rule, right?” she turned around to smile at her husband.

“Yeah, I know the rule. You can listen to one Christmas CD on July 25^th and then only once a month until September. After that its fair game and after Thanksgiving if that’s all you want to listen to then its all good.” He said with a smirk as he kissed her, “Did I get that right?” he asked as he pulled her close.

“You are so smart. Must be why I love you so much.”

“So I’m smart today huh? I’m not cute?” he said with a pout as he stuck his bottom lip out and gave Jay the sad eyes.

“Oh please. Now I know where our daughter gets the pout. She learned it from you!” Janey said as she hugged Chris close. There weren’t going to be too many hugs the next month so she was soaking in every moment she could.

“I have no idea how I ever let your mother talked me into those Christmas rules.” He said as he smiled at her.

“Yeah, well, those are the rules babe. Take em or leave em.”

“Well, I guess…” he said with a smile on his face. “How bout I just take you huh?” he said as he kissed his wife deeply. Janey would have loved to keep kissing him but she knew she had a ton of stuff to do and a bunch of people arriving shortly so she pulled away.

“You know, as much as I’d rather do this, look at my kitchen.” Janey said as she looked around the kitchen. There was food everywhere and so much to do. “So I’m getting back to work, are you helping me?” she asked with a smile.

“You want me to cook?” Chris asked with a grin.

“You want to eat?” she joked back.

“I guess you want me to cook. Okay what do I do?” he asked as Janey handed him an apron to put over his clothes.

“You have got to be kidding me right?” he said with a disgusted look on his face.

“Nope, not even a little lets go.” Janey said as she started giving him directions for different things to do. They had the baby monitor set up in the kitchen just in case Kate needed them but she was such a good little girl and loved to play by herself.

Janey and Chris had been married now for almost 3 years and were more in love with each other every day. It was a fairy tale romance for the two with its share of twists and turns in the way. Kate was what brought them even closer together. When Janey announced to Chris that she was pregnant with his child he almost instantly calmed down. Chris was one fifth of the musical group NSYNC and was known to everyone as kind of the crazy one and the one who wouldn’t commit. No one would have guessed that the first to be married would be Chris but it was true. The guys had been together for over 10 years and were still going strong. Their fan base was beginning to change as the teenagers they were used to, started to grow, so the group had their sound grow up as well. The next CD that they were working on was going to be completely different. They had even discussed doing a CD for Valentines Day of all love songs. That was what Janey, Caytlyn, Elley and Kim really wanted. The four girls were either seriously dating, as was the case with Kim and Joey, engaged as was the case with Elley and JC or married as was the case with Janey and Chris and Caytlyn and Lance. The only member of NSYNC who was dating anyone that was famous was Justin who was still with Britney Spears much to the dismay of his bandmates and their significant others.

The relationship between Justin and Britney was rocky at best. She had been caught several times cheating on him with Wade Robson, the guys former choreographer. As soon as news spread about that it was the decision of the group that for the sake of Justin, they wouldn’t work with him any longer. Everyone was tired of Wade’s crap anyway by that point so it didn’t really matter much that they had gotten rid of him. Darrin Henson started doing more of the groups choreography and the guys even did more of their own stuff. They were all pretty experienced by this point so it was easy for all of them. However, for some unknown reason to everyone, Justin still loved Britney however much they all tried to talk him out of it.

Janey and Chris were expecting quite a large group at the house that day for Thanksgiving dinner. The friends all loved to spend holidays together when they could. Every chance they got they flew home to their various families around the country but when they had little time, they enjoyed spending it together. This was going to be the first “real Thanksgiving” that they were going to have together so Janey and Chris quickly offered to have the dinner at their home in Orlando. After Janey gave birth to Kate the family relocated themselves to Orlando. Janey had been playing with the Boston Pops and still was an alternate for the group but after having the baby she really wanted to just focus on being a mother. She had been doing a lot of freelance work when Chris was home so that he could take care of their daughter. However, Auntie Cay and Uncle Lance never had a problem taking their niece off of their parent’s hands. Auntie Elley and Uncle JC didn’t either. Everyone loved Kate so much and did a fantastic job spoiling her rotten. Now that Joey and Kim were living together and spending a lot more time with Brianna it was nice for Jay because now not only was Kate getting spoiled but they spent the time spoiling Brianna as well. The very last thing that she wanted to see Kate becoming was spoiled because of the fact that her father was who he was. She wanted her daughter to have as normal a life as possible, which was one of the main reasons why she wanted to stay in Orlando and get Kate into school now that she was toilet trained.

“See Lance, I told you!” Caytlyn said as she and Lance came into the house. The door was pretty much left open most of the time when they knew that company was coming, not like it mattered because everyone had keys to the house. Caytlyn came into the kitchen followed close behind by her husband Lance. “Oh, check this out! You owe me two pairs of shoes Bass!” Cay said as she gave her husband a little squeeze.

“Huh?” Chris said as he looked up from the stove where he was stirring the gravy.

“I told him that you would be playing Christmas music and that Jay would get you into an apron and in the kitchen cooking.” Cay joked as she went up to give her brother-in-law a hug. “And you are doing both! I get two new pairs of shoes!” she squealed.

“Great to see you too Cay,” Chris joked and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He looked over at Lance and just gave him a look, “Don’t even say a word!”

“I wasn’t even thinking of it. However, that look is good on you,” he joked with his friend as he went up to give Janey a hug. “How are ya sis?” Lance asked as he gave Janey a quick kiss.

“Good sweetie. Didn’t mom tell you the rules of the Christmas music?” Janey asked Lance and Chris looked over and rolled his eyes. “Don’t start with me! And stir the gravy or it will be all lumpy,” she said to her husband as she blew him a kiss.

“Yeah, didn’t you talk to mom? She has all these rules about Christmas music. Didn’t she tell you them?” Chris laughed. “Man, if you haven’t let Cay listen to Christmas music you are in for it. You two have been married for how long now?” Chris joked.

“The same amount of time as you dumb ass.” Lance cracked back, “Well, to be honest, yeah, mom did say something about it but I didn’t really believe her until I got here today.”

“I told you so,” Cay said as she went up to Janey. “Okay two questions.”

“She’s in her playroom.” Jay said to her sister with a smile. She knew that Cay would want to know where her niece was as soon as she arrived at the house. Cay always brought something with her and of course today was no exception. “You spoil her you do realize this right?”

“Yeah, but I’m her favorite godmother so I’m supposed to.”

“You are her only godmother and no you aren’t. Just wait you two. Paybacks are a bitch!” Janey said as she looked to Chris and he just nodded. They knew that Cay and Lance had been trying to get pregnant and they fully intended to spoil their niece or nephew as much as, if not more than, Cay and Lance did. “What did you bring her today anyway?”

“It’s a surprise. So do I get to ask one question then seeing as you answered my first?” Cay asked as she went to the refrigerator to pull out some juice.

“Yes, I have a bunch for you to do. There are aprons hanging in the closet.”

“You two know each other entirely too well!” Lance and Chris said together.

“Yeah, you guys should talk. What was that game you used to play on the bus?” Jay and Cay looked at each other and said “I KNOW WHAT YOU”RE GOING TO SAY NEXT!” and the guys busted out laughing.

“So,” Chris said as he came up behind Janey, “Am I relieved of my duties now?” he said as he kissed her behind the ear, something that drove her absolutely wild.

“Yeah, go ahead and play,” Janey said as she shooed him and Lance away. “Make sure the table is cleaned off first!” Janey yelled behind him.

“Yes mom!” he said back and smiled and blew a kiss in her direction.

“You two make me sick,” Cay said to her sister as she continued where Chris left off with the gravy.

“Yeah, okay, sure, like you have any room to talk miss lovey dovey!” Janey said as she joked with her sister. The two knew that they were both madly in love and with men that they grew to love more each day. They couldn’t even fathom the fact that they were as happy as they were.

“Aunnnie CAY!!!!!” Kate came screaming into the room. Janey could hear her little footsteps a mile away and smiled as she saw her sister go to pick up her daughter.

“Hey lovebug!” Cay said as she picked up her niece,

“Unle Laaaaaaancie here?” she asked in her two-year-old voice.

“Yup, did you go say hi?”

“He and dada pay?”

“Yeah, I think that they are in the game room. You wanna go and say hi?” Cay asked Kate as she looked over to Janey before leaving.

“Go ahead, I’ve got it under control up here. We just have a couple little things to do. I’m going to get things cleaned up.”

“You sure?” Cay asked as Kate started to squirm in her arms.

“Yeah, go, she’s gonna jump out of your arms in a second.”

“Mamma hug?”

“Of course,” Jay said as she went over and hugged her daughter. “I love you.”

“Love you too. See Laaaaance?” 

“Yeah, you go and find out what kind of trouble daddy is getting into and play with Lance.”

“Daddy no touble,” she giggled.

“You’d think that wouldn’t you,” Janey and Cay laughed as she handed Kate to Cay. “Make sure they are keeping the house somewhat clean?”

“You got it. Blow mommy a kiss Katiebug,” Cay said as Kate picked up her hand and kissed it and blew it to her mother. This was a new trick that she had learned. Chris had wanted to have a way that Kate would know that he was thinking of her when he was away so he started blowing kisses to the cameras when asked about his daughter. Jay would watch the shows with Kate in her lap and Kate would blow kisses back.

Janey watched as her sister left the room with her daughter in hand. It was so wonderful to have everyone so close. She missed having her mother around of course but having all of the guys and their girls made life a lot easier. Janey went about cleaning up the kitchen and took the plates into the dining room so that she could set the table.

“Lets see, Me, Chris, Kate, Cay, Lance, Joey, Kim, Elley, JC, Justin, don’t know about Brit, I think that’s it unless Joey and Kim bring Brianna with them. Okay so 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9…yeah and then maybe,” Jay was talking to herself as she felt a huge hug come up from behind her.

“34, 56, 32, 24…”

“Joey quit it!” Janey exclaimed.

“What’s with the Christmas music anyway?” he asked as he spun Janey around to give her a hug. 

“Don’t start with me. I don’t want to discuss it. Lets leave it as a Sinclair family tradition that is being upheld in the Kirkpatrick household. Don’t like it leave!” she joked as she saw Kim standing behind him holding the hand of Joey’s daughter Brianna. Kim loved Brianna so much. The two of them really hit it off and now that Brianna was spending more time with Joey and Kim life was great. Kim and Joey really wanted to have children, and spent lots of time practicing, but as of yet she wasn’t pregnant.

“Hey sweetie!” Janey said as she went over to give hugs to Kim and Brianna.

“Hi Auntie Janey,” Brianna said. She was growing up so much. Janey couldn’t believe that she was already 4 ½ and would be starting school in less than a year.

“Hey sweetie, did Kimmy and daddy bring you over to play with Kate today?”

“Yup! Where’s Kate?” she asked. Her vocabulary was amazing for a 4 year old and she knew it was due to everyone talking to her so much.

“I think she’s downstairs with Uncle Chris and Uncle Lance and Auntie Cay.”

“Uncle LAAAAAANCE????” Brianna asked. Both Kate and Brianna loved Lance. He was so cute with the girls and he was going to make a great dad someday.

“Why don’t you have your daddy take you downstairs to play sweetie,” Jay said as she looked up at Joey.

“Come on sweetness lets go play,” Joey said as he took Brianna’s hand.

“I can walk myself daddy!” she said.

“Ah, I see we are starting with the attitude huh?” Jay laughed towards Kim.

“Are you kidding me? She’s been like this you know that. It’s her mother’s influence. I wouldn’t stand for it if I were her but you know how it goes.”

“Yeah,” Janey said. She knew that Kim really cared so much for Brianna but Kelley, Brianna’s mom, was adamant to mention every time that she could that SHE was Brianna’s mom and that Kim was just Joey’s girlfriend. “So how are you sweetie? Do you guys have Bri all day?” she asked.

“Yup, for the next two days until Joey goes back out again. I just wish that we could spend more time with her you know?”

“Understood. Wanna help?” Janey asked her friend as she handed her some plates to help set the table.

“Oh, here, we brought pie.” Kim said as she picked up the basket she brought with her.

“Thanks sweetie! I really appreciate it. Just set it in the kitchen.”

“Dear god, how long have you been cooking for?” Kim asked as she saw all of the pots and pans in the dishwasher and the food stuck in the refrigerator waiting to be warmed later when everyone arrived.

“Huh?” Janey asked as she came into the kitchen.

“All this food! You think you were feeding an army!”

“Have you watched your boyfriend and my husband eat recently? I am feeding an army! An army of boy band members!” she joked. Jay knew that her husband and his friends hated being called a boy band, as they clearly weren’t that any longer. Maybe a few years ago but not now. They were a band now and that was it and a really incredible one at that. The critics had finally started to leave the guys alone when it came to their music when they finally got it through their brains that they weren’t just a group of pretty boys. They were really talented men and that was the end of the story.

“You’re right. Where do you want this?” Kim asked as she held the food in her hands. Janey rearranged things in the fridge and Kim handed over the food. “I’ll never understand how you can do that?” Kim joked with her friend.

“Whatever, so how are you girl? Are you going with Joe for the rest of the tour?” Kim had been traveling with Joey for this tour so Kim and Jay spent a lot of time together.

“Yeah, we’re leaving what on Sunday?”

“I think so, that’s what Chris said. So, shopping tomorrow? I’ve got to get some Christmas shopping done!”

“The day after Thanksgiving? Are you on crack? Jay, you don’t have to go and get stuff on sale any more remember? You’re married to Chris?” Kim knew that Janey couldn’t pass up buying stuff on sale but she also didn’t want to fight the crowds.

“Awww, come on! It’ll be fun! You, me, Elley, and Cay we can all go shopping.”

“Where are we going?” Elley asked as she came into the kitchen. “Hey girls!” she said as she came up to give them all hugs and had her arms loaded down with more food. “Here Jay! I wanted to help.”

“Thanks sweetie. Where’s JC?” she asked her friend.

“Oh fine, I see how it is, you just want to see my fiancé huh? How bout we just look at the ring one more time.” Elley said with a huge smile on her face. JC had proposed on her birthday a little over a month before and Elley just was beaming ever since. Elley held up her hand to show her friends her ring. The girls sat in awe. It was exactly what she had always wanted a 1-½ carat marquise cut diamond with baguettes on the side all set in platinum. It was positively stunning. When Chris came home after shopping with JC for it he was so excited and just wanted to tell Jay right away but JC made him promise not to say anything because he knew that Jay would spill it.

“Its really beautiful Elley.” Janey said as she beamed at her friend and hugged her.

“So where’s my favorite niece?” Elley asked.

“Which one?” Kim asked.

“You mean Brianna’s here too?” she asked as she looked over at Kim questioning.

“Yeah, miss ‘I’m her mom and that’s all there is to it’ decided to spend the day with her newest flames kids today and said that she didn’t want to take Brianna. What’s up with that anyway? I’d take care of the little girl all the time if I could and I know that Joey would want us too and then we have to deal with her.” Kim said as she was beginning to get upset. Janey and Elley went over to give her a hug. They knew how much Kim and Joey cared for Brianna and it killed the girls to see Kim upset.

“So where are the lovely ladies?” Elley asked as the girls heard giggles coming from the baby monitor. “Let me guess?” she asked, as the girls knew exactly where the little ones were. Their uncles in the game room in the basement were torturing them.

“Go on down there girls. I’ll be down in a bit. I just want to finish up things here. I’m almost done.” Jay said to her friends.

“Are you sure?” they both asked.

“Positive, make sure my baby girl is okay? Chris is in a tickle torture mood today. My guess is that she’s already had an accident.” Kim left the room to go and see how the boys and the kids were downstairs and also to save Cay seeing as she was down there herself. Being the only girl with the guys was never the position you wanted to be in. The guys could be relentless when they wanted to be.

“So how are you sweetie?” Elley asked her friend. She knew that Jay was going to miss Chris when he went back out on tour. No matter how long they were apart they always missed each other.

“I’m okay, why?” Jay asked.

“Because I know you better than you know yourself and I know that right now all you’re thinking about is the fact that Chris is leaving on Sunday for a month without you and Kate.” She said with a smile.

“Yeah, okay, I guess it kind of sucks. But you know, that’s the life I chose right? I miss him but I also want Kate in school.”

“Understood, so you wanna see the rock again?” she said with a grin on her face.

“Have you given any thought to the wedding at all?” Janey asked.

“Actually, yes I have, and I have a question for you.” Elley said, as she looked straight at her friend.

“Okay, shoot,” Janey, said, “You name it, you’ve got it.”

“Are you sure?” Elley asked.

“Of course, unless of course you want me to be your wedding planner or something because there’s no possible way.” She said with a smile.

“Nah, nothing like that, but I want to know if you’d be my matron of honor?” Elley said.

“Are you serious? Of course I would sweetie! I’d be honored.” Janey said as she gave her friend a hug.

“And can Kate be in the wedding too? I was thinking of having her and Brianna be the flower girls?”

“Of course she can! Oh, I’m so honored sweetie.” Jay said to her friend as they both started to cry.

“Dear god! What is this all about?” Justin said as he came into the kitchen. “Hey mom! What’s up?” he said as he went over to give Janey a hug and a kiss. He went over to Elley and hugged her as well.

“Hey sweetie. How are you?” Janey said.

“I’m fine. Tired. Out partying last night.” Justin said with a smirk on his face.

“I’ll bet. Where’s the diva?” Elley asked Justin with a slight grin on her face.

“You are meaning Britney I’m guessing? She’s with her mom and the rest of the family down at home. So you just get my gorgeous self to grace your presence.”

“So we just get you today? No, I’m the best singer in the world? Cay will be so thrilled! The kids are all downstairs why don’t you go and tell everyone that dinner is just about ready.” Jay said to Justin and he waved goodbye to her as he headed down to get his friends.

“God I’m glad she’s not here.” Elley said to Janey as she smiled back at her. Janey felt the same way. She really didn’t want to deal with Britney. She dealt with her as much as she had too seeing as Chris and Justin were best friends but that was it. Elley wasn’t too fond of Brit either after the number that she had played on Justin. They all just put up with it. Someday he’d realize that Britney was just using him but until such time they’d all grin and bear it.

“Mommy Mommy Mommy!” Jay heard the familiar voice of her daughter coming as quick as she could up the stairs. “Unle C chase me!” she said as she saw JC close behind her daughter.

“Is he trying to get you again?” Elley asked as she went to pick up Kate. “I’ll save you sweetie.” She swung Kate around in a circle and tickled her sides.

“Hey mom!” JC said as he came over to say hi to Janey.

“I was wondering if you were going to come up here and say hello.” Janey joked and gave JC a hug. He lifted her up off of her feet and placed a kiss on top of her head.

“Jace, what did I tell you about hitting on my wife?” Chris said as he slapped his friend on the back.

“Couldn’t resist sorry man,” he said as he placed her down on her feet. Janey and JC had become such dear friends. Janey had a relationship with JC that was different than the other guys because they just connected on a different level. With JC it wasn’t always fun and games and joking. He was the one that she could go to when something was going on in her life, or if Kate was sick or something. He had quickly become her confidant when Chris and her were having problems just before Jay found out that she was pregnant. JC was pretty much the only person who really knew everything that happened and ever since then the two were the best of friends.

“Okay well lets eat man! I’m starving!” Joey said as he went up to Kim with Brianna in his arms.

“Joe, when aren’t you hungry man?” Justin said to his friend. The group all gathered around the table. Each person next to their significant other with the children spaced perfectly through the group.

“Who wants to say grace?” Jay asked.

“Well, it’s your home guys. I think you should.” Cay replied and Janey looked over at Chris who stood up to raise his glass to his friends.

“I just want to say thank you to God for bringing all of us together today. I thank God every day for each and every one of you being in my life. I think we all have a lot to be thankful for,” he said as he looked at his daughter and his wife. “So let’s do this,” he began, “let’s go around the table and we’ll each say what we are thankful for and I’ll start. I’m thankful for all of you but especially for this beautiful woman that I wake up next to each morning. My wife Janey and for the little person who wakes us both up every day, our little girl Kate.” Jay got tears in her eyes as Chris kissed her hand and the top of his daughters’ head. Everyone took a turn going around and saying what they were thankful for and the last two to go were Cay and Lance.

“Well, I have a lot to be thankful for as well.” Lance started. “But Cay and I have something extra special to be thankful for this year and we wanted you all to be the first to know.” Janey knew something was up and looked at her sister who had tears in her eyes. “Do you want me to tell them or do you?” Lance asked Cay. She nodded at him and Lance continued. “We are going to have another addition to our little family here, which seems to be getting bigger,” he said as he looked around the table at everyone. “Cay and I are expecting!” Everyone got up out of their chairs to start congratulating the happy couple. They were going to be great parents and now there would be another baby around. Janey went up to her sister and gave her a big hug and a kiss and a knowing look that she knew all along. When Cay said last week she didn’t want to go shopping because she was sick she knew something was up. So the NSYNC family was growing once again. The friends all realized they had so much to be thankful for and sat down to eat and enjoy each other’s company.

“Mamma!” Kate said as she woke up and saw Janey walk into her bedroom early the next day.

“Hey sweetie pie. How are you?” she asked as she picked up her little girl.

“I good, we go bye bye?”

“No sweetie, you are going to play with daddy today.” Janey said as she got her dressed in overalls and a shirt so she was all ready to play. Janey had her dressed in clothes that she clearly could get dirty because Kate was usually a mess by the time she got home from playing with her uncles. Chris tried hard to keep her clean but the other guys just liked to play with the baby.

“I pay wit unle C?”

“Yup, and Lance and Joey and Uncle JuJu too!” Janey said as she tried to keep Kate as quiet as possible she wanted Chris to enjoy those few extra minutes of sleep he was able to get while he was home.

“We are going to have so much fun today!” Chris said as he came and put his arms around Janey and gave her a kiss. He bent down to kiss his little girl as well, “Good morning my lovely ladies and how is everyone this beautiful day?”

“Well, you sure are chipper this morning!” Janey said. It was still really early in the morning and Jay was trying to get out the door so that she could meet up with Cay, Elley and Kim to go and do some shopping.

“You would be too if you got to wake up to your smiling face in the morning,” he said with a smirk.

“Okay, what do you want?” Janey asked.

“Absolutely nothing, aren’t I allowed to give my wife a compliment in the morning?” He asked as he kissed Janey.

“Me kiss daddy?” Kate asked as she looked at her parents.

“Oh my goodness, did I forget about my Katiebug?” he asked as he picked the toddler up and swung her around the room. “We are going to have so much fun today Kate! Just you and me!”

“An Laaaaaaance an Juju an oey an unle c too?” Kate asked in her toddler voice. She was trying hard to pronounce everyone’s names but it was still tough for her. She had Justin and Lance down pretty good.

“Yup, everyone’s going to be there. Brianna too!”

“Ana pay?” she asked.

“You bet, we have to get going soon though how bout some breakfast?” he asked as he waved Janey off so she could get ready to go out with the girls. “What do you want?” he asked as he headed downstairs to the kitchen with Kate up on his shoulders. Janey watched the two walk away and thought about how much she was going to miss this interactment the next month. This would be the longest that the family would be apart since Kate was born so it was going to be tough on everyone. Jay knew that Chris would call daily and talk to them on the phone but it wasn’t the same. Jay thought about changing her decision to go on tour but ultimately decided that this was the best.

Jay finished dressing and went down to the kitchen to find Chris and Kate eating breakfast together. “Well, I’m going to go. Do I get kisses?” she asked as Kate jumped down from her booster seat to go and run and kiss her mom goodbye.

“Bye bye bye mommy!” she said as both Janey and Chris laughed. Kate’s new thing was learning what her dad was singing up on stage. Bye Bye Bye seemed to be the easiest so Chris would show her how to do the move with her hand and she was really getting the hang of it. Kate was such a smart little girl and Jay and Chris just loved her more than anything in the world.

“Bye sweetie. I love you!” she said as she hugged her child and kissed her. Chris looked on in amazement at the two women who were such an amazing part of his life. He didn’t know what he did to deserve Janey and sometimes he thought about that and about how he almost lost her. He lived with that memory every day and each day he tried to make everything as perfect as possible.

“What about me?” Chris said with a pout on his face and went up to Janey who had put Kate back in her booster seat to finish breakfast. Chris put his arms around Janey and pulled her close. “Do we get to have family time tonight?” he asked as he looked down into her eyes.

“Sounds good to me. I shouldn’t be out too long with the girls. What are you guys up to today?” she asked.

“We’re going over to JC and Elley’s to do some recording. The kids will be fine, you know Elley, she’s got a butt load of toys there for the girls to play with.” He said smiling at Janey.

“Cool. Okay, I’ll give you a call before I come home. I love you sweetie,” she said as she went to kiss Chris who pulled her close. The kiss turned in to a bit of a deeper kiss that showed of events that would most likely be happening later on that night. Chris and Janey had been trying to get pregnant again so that Kate would have a brother or sister but as of yet no such luck. They were hoping that before Kate turned 3 they would either be pregnant or have another child so they were trying every chance they got and it looked like that might be the last night for a while.

“If I don’t let you go now I’ll never let go,” he joked, “get out of here. Try not to spend too much okay?” he said with a smile.

“No problem sweetie. Bye! Bye Katie….I love you sweetie!”

“Love you mommy!” she said to her mom and Chris gave Janey another peck on the cheek.

“I love you Jay. Have fun!” he said as Janey turned to leave the house.

“Hey this is Chris,” he said into the cell phone that was ringing as Chris was driving over to JC’s house with Kate. He hated talking on the phone in the car especially with the baby but when he saw his manager Johnny’s phone number he figured he had best take the call.

“Hey Chris, Happy Thanksgiving. Did you have a nice couple of days off?” he asked.

“Yeah, it was great. Everyone was at our place yesterday and we’re going to go and record some of the tracks for the new album today over at JC’s place.”

“Sounds good. Hey, I needed to talk to you about something. You will probably have to discuss this with Jay though,” he began.

“Shoot, what’s up? Please don’t tell me we’re going out on the road right after New Years because I can’t do that to Jay right now.”

“Oh, nothing like that. I promised you guys time off and you’ve got it as soon as the album is done and that should be done in the next month no problem. What I need to talk to you about is Christmas and Rosie O’Donnell.”

“Huh?” Chris asked confused.

“Well, Rosie wants to do a Christmas special with you guys.”

“Okay, I got that, but what does this have to do with Jay?” he asked doing something with Rosie, especially over the holidays was nothing new to the guys. They had been on the show numerous times during their career and 3 of those were over holidays so this was nothing new at all.

“See, the way they want to do it is to take a look at the way you celebrate the holidays. They want to do the show from one of your homes with your wives, significant others, children etc.”

“Wow, yeah, I’m probably going to need to talk to Jay about this one. We really haven’t brought Kate out into the public eye yet. Have you talked to Joe? I know he hasn’t brought Brianna out too much yet either.” Chris asked. He wasn’t quite sure what Jay was going to say to this. They had some publicity shots done when Kate was a baby and then 2 other times just so that they wouldn’t be hounded by press but this was something completely different and it meant having the TV show taped from their home. This was going to be a rough one for Jay. She liked her privacy and didn’t really appreciate the teenagers showing up on the lawn.

“Actually, I just spoke to Joe. He’s all for it and isn’t going to bring on Kelly rather, he’s going to bring on Kim.”

“That ought to go over real big,” Chris said. Kelly wouldn’t like this one at all! “Well, am I the last one?” he asked Johnny as he wondered if the other girls already knew about this. They’d for sure be discussing it if he had talked to them already.

“Actually, yeah, you were the last. Everyone is pretty much up for it. It sounds like Cay and Lance have news they want to share and JC and Elley were going to use the time to announce their engagement as well.” Johnny continued, “As far as the Joey issue is concerned. I really don’t know what to think about that one. It sounds like Kelly doesn’t mind Brianna being on TV but she wants nothing to do with it and I think Joe wants the world to know who his significant other is.”

“Sounds about right. Well, what else do I need to tell Jay?” he asked. Chris wanted to make sure he had all the details down pat before going to Jay with the news. Johnny went over the details of the show, that Chris and Jay would still get to decorate their own home which was a good thing because Jay was anal about her decorating, WEG and the Rosie show would be paying for any and all decorations that they needed. Then Johnny dropped the bombshell.

“Well, there’s one other thing Chris.” Johnny continued. “You see, we need a place to film the show and I know how Jay is about Christmas and decorating and stuff. Well, we were wondering if we could film the actual show at your home. The other guys’ houses will be shown but the main show will take place in your house.”

“Wow, really?” Chris asked, “That’s going to be one for Jay, I really need to discuss this with her. When do you need an answer?” he asked.

“As soon as possible. The sooner the better.” Johnny continued, “We want to give the girls all the time they need to do the decorating.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to her tonight and get back to you when we meet up with you on Sunday if not sooner. Is that good?” he asked.

“Yup, sounds good to me. If Janey has any questions at all please have her give me a call okay Chris?” he asked.

“Daddy!!!!!!” Kate screeched from the backseat of the car.

“You go and take care of Kate, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Thanks bye,” Chris said as he hung up the phone, “What’s up sweetie pie?” he asked his daughter.

“Daddy sing!” she said. Sure enough one of the guys Christmas songs was on the radio. Chris rolled his eyes, as he knew that Jay would say ‘I TOLD YOU SO’ she was determined about this Christmas music thing. He turned up the radio and sang along with the music. “Daddy sig!!!!” she squealed again, “Sync sig!”

“Yup, that’s daddy sweetie. Do you like daddy singing?” Chris heard his daughter giggle from the backseat and he knew that she was enjoying her private concert. “Who else sings Kate?”

“JUJU sig! An Laaaaaance. An Oey.”

“What about JC?” he asked as he smiled at his daughter.

“NOOOOOOOOO…..Unl C dance!” she giggled.

“Oh yeah, what about daddy?”

“Daddy sig…no dance!” she said determined.

“Yeah, we’ll just have to see about that,” Chris said as he reached JC’s home. He pulled Kate out of her car seat and started to dance around with her. Justin and Lance arrived to see Chris dancing around the driveway with Kate and singing to her.

“WOO HOO!!!!” they hollered as Joey came up the driveway with Brianna and all of her things in hand. Chris bowed with Kate in his arms and she giggled uncontrollably until she saw Justin and held out her arms to him to hold her.

“Unle JUJU!” she laughed and Justin took Kate from Chris’ arms.

“Hey Katiebug. How are you today? You dancing with daddy?”

“NOOOOOO Daddy sig!” she said as she laughed again.

“Yeah, he thinks he can sing doesn’t he. Shhhh…don’t tell daddy but he can’t dance,” Justin whispered to Kate.

“Daddy no dance?” she asked.

“Yup that’s right. Daddy no dance! He’s to old!”

“I heard that Timberlake!” Chris said as he got the rest of Kate’s things out of the car and everyone headed inside. They got the girls settled playing with some toys that Elley kept around the house for just this occasion. It was really nice for the guys to have a place that they could record where the children could play and they could keep their eyes on them.

“So we’re really going to do this Valentine’s CD huh guys?” JC asked his friends. He was just as excited as they were. The girls had requested it months ago and they didn’t care if they just made 4 copies for them. They just wanted a compilation of NSYNC love songs as well as some covers that they had requested.

“Hell yeah! I think it’s a great idea,” Joey said as he gave Brianna another toy to play with.

“The girls are going to loose it! Hey, we can tell them about it on Rosie!” Lance said with a smile.

“Yeah, what’s up with that guys? How the hell am I going to tell Janey that they want to film the Rosie O’Donnell show at her house huh?” Chris asked his friends. They all gave him advice on how to tell her. Everything ranging from mad passionate sex and telling her after its all over, that was from Joey, to taking her out for a nice evening and letting Uncle JC and Aunt Elley watch the baby for the night. Chris decided on JC’s idea and made arrangements to take Janey out to dinner that night at The Melting Pot, one of her favorite restaurants.

“Well, we’ve got our work cut out for us guys,” Justin said as he pulled the cd track out of his bag. “Let’s do this!” and the guys set down to work. They took a couple of breaks to play with the girls and to have lunch but were busy all day. By the time the girls got home from shopping they had 6 tracks completed and JC would work on all of the editing.

“Wow, I can’t believe how much we got done!” Lance said as they got things cleaned up and played with the girls.

“No kidding, we’ll definitely have this CD done. The girls are going to love it!” Joey replied as he picked up Brianna’s toys to get ready to leave.

“Well, I think we need to get going,” Chris said as he looked at Kate who was beginning to yawn uncontrollably. “This little one needs a nap I do believe and her daddy could use one too,” he said as he yawned. “So do you and Elley want to come to our place or do you want us to bring Kate over here?” Chris asked JC.

“We’ll come over your place that way we can just put Kate to bed there and we can play house,” he smiled. “We need to get the practice you know.” He said with a huge grin on his face JC and Elley were so happy together and they just hoped that someday they would have the kind of life that Jay and Chris led with a beautiful child and just the happiest of lives.

“Sounds good, we’ll see you around six or so then.” Chris said as he picked up Kate. “Say bye bye to everyone Kate,” he said as Kate buried her head into Chris’ shoulder. She was clearly exhausted.

“Bye bye bye!” she said to the guys.

“You are teaching her the songs?” Justin asked as he went to give Kate a kiss.

“You are kidding right? Its not like she hasn’t grown up around the darn song. I think she came out of Janey singing it.” He joked with his friends. “Okay, see you all later!” Chris said as he left with his exhausted daughter in his arms. This was perfect, he could go home and get Kate down for a nap and then get everything in for the weekend.

“Hey is anyone home?” Janey said as she came into the house loaded down with bags. The girls had all done some great shopping for their families and Janey figured she had just about everything done except for a gift for Chris and of course, more gifts for Kate.

“Shhhh,” Chris said as he came up behind her. He had switched on some soft music and took her in his arms. “How was your day?” he whispered into her ear.

“Good, what’s all this for?” she asked as he turned her around to face him. In his hand Chris held a single pink rose. He took the rose and brushed the petals down her face. Janey turned into an instant puddle on the floor as Chris took her face in his hands and kissed her lightly starting at her eyes and kissed each of them lightly and moved his way down her face until he reached her lips, which he kissed passionately. Janey’s eyes were shut and she was enjoying every moment of this attention she was getting from her husband. She cherished every moment that they spent together and they were more in love today than they were yesterday.

“So why is it so quiet around here?” Janey asked after Chris moved his mouth away from hers and just was holding her close.

“She’s out like a light. She was playing with Brianna and the guys all day and didn’t really take a nap. We should probably go and wake her up soon before Jace and Elley get here.”

“Yeah we should. Why are they coming over? I figured they’d be all over each other this weekend with you guys leaving.” Janey asked looking confused.

“Well, he offered to have the two of them come over and take care of Kate tonight. They wanna play house.” He joked.

“Wow, you mean a night off just you and I together?” Janey asked looking excited, “No one else, just us, like a real date?” Janey was so excited. The two of them hadn’t gone out just the two of them in forever. Janey felt so guilty leaving Kate alone with her friends because she felt like she was intruding, however, they were always offering.

“Yup, just the two of us,” he said as he kissed her. “So you better go and get ready.”

“You going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope, it’s a prize,” he joked using Kate’s word for surprise.

“Sounds good to me.” She said and headed upstairs with Chris behind her.

Chris went to go and take care of Kate and get her all ready for her aunt and uncle to come over and play as Janey went to go and take a shower. As she was getting ready she was trying to figure out a way that she was going to tell Chris that she already knew all about the Rosie show. Cay was so excited when she found out about it that she told Jay immediately. All day the girls had been discussing how they were going to decorate the houses. They had decided that they had 3 weeks to do this so 2 houses a week and they would be all set. They also all figured that Brit wouldn’t have the time to decorate Justin’s home so they would do it for him.

“MOMMY!” Janey heard the small voice coming from her bedroom and figured that Chris had gone to the other bathroom to start getting ready himself.

“Hey sweetie, where’s your daddy?” she asked as she picked up Kate.

“Dunno, pay Barney?” she asked

“Aww sweetie, I can’t right now, I have to go and get pretty to go out with daddy.”

“Me too?” she asked with wide eyes looking up at Janey.

“Sure we can get you all pretty too. You are going to play with Elley and JC tonight how does that sound.”

“YEAH!!!!! Elley!!!!” Kate said as she squirmed out of her mother’s arms. “Elley here?” she asked.

“Not yet, we have to get pretty first. Do you wanna look pretty for Uncle C?”

“Yay!” she squealed and hopped up on the bed to sit with Janey while Jay finished getting her stockings on. The two girls sat together at the makeup mirror and as Janey was putting the finishing touches on her makeup and hair she brushed Kate’s hair and pretended to put make up on her face. They were having so much fun they didn’t even realize that Chris was standing behind them watching the mother and daughter interacting together. Kate caught her father’s reflection in the mirror and turned quickly around.

“Daddy! I pretty!” she said to her father as she jumped up into his arms.

“You certainly are pretty. Look at your mommy!”

“Mommy pretty too?”

“She sure is.” He said as he pulled out another rose from behind his back. “Actually, she’s beautiful,” Chris said as he took Janey’s hand and got her to her feet. He handed her the other rose”

“Wow, you must really have something up your sleeve tonight Kirkpatrick,” she said as she looked into his eyes.

“Hey there!!! Anybody home?” JC and Elley yelled as they came into the house.

“Up here!” Chris shouted. Kate went running off to find her aunt and uncle.

“Hey sweetness, how are you?” Elley said as she picked up the toddler.

“I pretty auntie Elley,” she said.

“You sure are. And look at your mommy and daddy!” Elley said as she came into the bedroom and saw Chris and Jay all dressed up to go out. “You two look fantastic.”

“Thanks sweetie, you know the drill right? She hasn’t had dinner yet, we’ve been playing.” Janey started on the routine of Kate.

“Yeah, and she didn’t really nap today from playing with the boys,” Chris continued.

“Got it guys. Go! Have fun! We’re going to go and play in Kate’s room right cute stuff?”

“We pay?” she asked.

“Yup, we’re going to go and play. But first we have to find Uncle C, do you know where he is?”

“I find?” she asked.

“Yeah, you go and find him.” Elley said as Kate squirmed out of her arms and off to go and find and tackle her uncle.

“Thanks so much for doing this tonight El,” Janey said as they all walked to the door together. Chris grabbed Janey’s coat and a package for her as well.

“Please don’t worry about it Jay,” JC said as he came up behind Elley with Kate in his arms who was laughing hysterically from him tickling her, “Its our pleasure.”

“Besides it gives us a chance to practice for when we have our own kids,” Elley continued.

“Okay, if you say so, have fun. Bye sweetiepie,” Janey said to her daughter.

“Mommy hug an kiss?” she asked.

“You bet,” Janey said as she took Kate from JC’s arms.

“What about Daddy?” Chris asked, “Don’t I get one too?” he said with a pout on his face.

“Daddy hug an kiss too,” Kate said as she reached for Chris.

“Okay little one, you go and play and have fun,” Chris said as he handed Kate to Elley.

“Say bye bye Kate,” JC said.

“BYE BYE BYE,” she giggled as Jay and Chris shut the door behind them off on their evening of peace and quiet.

“Is she not the cutest thing ever?” Janey laughed. “I still can’t believe that she’s picking up stuff like that.”

“I know I’m really going to miss that smile when we’re on tour. And listening to her laugh, and getting her up in the morning and playing with her,” Chris went on sounding very sad. This next month was going to be a killer without Kate and Janey around with him and he wasn’t sure he was going to make it.

“Chris, you are going to be fine. I know you; you’ll call in the morning to say good morning. You’ll call us every night to say goodnight to Kate. And you will most likely call 20 times during the day just to talk to her.” Janey joked. She was trying to keep the conversation light because she knew that they would miss him as much as he would miss them. “So, when were you going to tell me about Rosie?” Jay asked with a smile on her face. She knew that this was one of the things that they had to ‘discuss’ tonight and figured she’d let him off easy on this one.

“Who told you? Wait, I know, you were with your sister today and I know she can’t keep her big mouth shut. She told you didn’t she?” Chris joked however he was relieved that the subject was already out in the open.

“Hey, that’s my sister you’re talking about. But yeah, she told me. We were all talking about it today.”

“So, what do you think?” he asked hoping that she would say yes to the idea.

“I think it would be fun. My mom is going to flip out when she sees the house on Rosie! You just have to give me any ideas of stuff you want and then I’ll go from there.”

“You mean you are actually going to let me help with this?” He asked absolutely astonished that Janey was going to let him have any input.

“Well, I figured you could do one of the trees how you wanted it. You just have to let me know what you want on it okay?”

“Cool. Wait, one of the trees?” he asked with a confused look on his face.

“Heck yeah, I figure that we are going to have at least five of them.”

“Okay, and where are we going to put five trees may I ask?” Janey went on to explain all of her ideas for the house. Chris just watched as she got all animated about the different things that she wanted for the house. She explained everything that she was planning top to bottom and then told Chris that he could have his tree down in the game room in the basement.

“Well, it sounds like you girls were busy today huh?” he joked as he knew that all of the girls were telling their significant other about the plans for their particular house during the day. “So on my tree,” he began as Jay cringed at the thought of what he was about to say here. The girls had tried all day to figure out how purple and silver were going to look on the tree. Cay loved the color purple, almost as much as Chris, so she was giving her ideas.

“Purple and Silver. Only those two colors Jay that’s it.” He said very determined.

“Okay, you got it. One tree, all in purple and silver and it goes into the game room.”

“That was way to easy. What if I said something like baby blue and pink?”

“Dream on! That’s Justin and Brits tree anyway.”

“Yeah, who’s going to do his place?” he asked, “I don’t really see miss thang doing a Christmas tree and decorating the house.”

“We discussed that. We’re going to do 2 houses a week and spend one whole week on our place. We’ll do Justin’s house and let him tell us what they want in the house. That way no one really has to deal with her.”

“Cool. Well, here we are.” Chris said as he pulled up in front of the restaurant.

“Oh thank you sweetie,” Janey said as she turned to hug her Chris. He pulled her close and kissed her and grabbed the package from the back.

“Oh, and these are for you too.” Chris said as he pulled out a beautiful bouquet of pink, white and red roses.

“What did I do to deserve you?” She asked as she kissed him.

“You are just perfect. That’s it all that needed to be done. I can’t quite figure out why you wanted me over one of the other guys but I sure am lucky.” He said as he got out of the car to open the door for Janey who took his hand. The two went in to enjoy a nice romantic dinner and talk more about their promising future together. They lounged over fondue and fine wine all-night and laughed about times past and funny things that they had done with their daughter.

“So what do you think about another one?” Chris asked as they got back to the house.

“Haven’t we already had this discussion? You know how I feel about that. Of course I want another one.” Janey said as he opened the front door to the house and the two walked inside. The house was very quiet and they figured that Kate had been asleep for hours by this point. As Chris and Jay walked into the living room they found JC and Elley curled up on the couch and there was Kate curled up in Elley’s lap. “Don’t they look so cute?” Jay said softly.

“No kidding huh? They really need to have a kid,” Chris said as he went over to pick up Kate to put her into her bed.

“Hey guys,” Elley said as she rubbed her eyes. “I guess we must have fallen asleep. The little one here got scared and came running downstairs so we all watched a Disney movie together.” She said a she motioned towards the television that was running the credits from Toy Story. “Josh, sweetie, Chris and Jay are home lets go sweetie,” Elley said as she tried to wake JC, which was never an easy task.

“Hey guys,” he said in a very sleepy voice, “Did you have a nice date?” he asked Janey.

“Yeah, we had a great time, thanks again you guys. We really needed this tonight.” Jay said as she went to give her friends a hug.

“Anytime, you know that.” Elley said as she grabbed her purse to get going.

“So what did you tell him Jay? Are you guys up for this whole Rosie thing?” JC asked.

“Of course, it’s going to be fun right Elley?”

“Hell yeah! We get to basically shop on WEG for 3 weeks. How much fun is that going to be huh?”

“No kidding. Well, I don’t know if I’ll see you before you leave JC so have a great rest of the tour.” Janey said as she went up to give JC another hug goodbye.

“You aren’t coming on Sunday to see us off?” he asked.

“We’ll try but its always so hard for Kate to say goodbye and its hard for Chris too so I figure we’ll just do that whole scene here at the house. It’ll be easier for both of them. I might Sarah from next door come over for a few hours just so I can go and say goodbye to Chris myself but I’m not going to bring Kate.” Janey explained trying to fight back the tears.

“Well, hopefully we’ll see you Sunday then. Try not to spend too much money on this whole Christmas thing please? We’d all like to have jobs when we get back.” He joked.

“I promise. Now you two go and get some sleep and enjoy your time tomorrow. Elley, you are going to come over and help me Monday right?” she asked her friend. Monday was going to be Kate’s first day of school so Elley knew it was going to be a rough day for Janey.

“You got it sweetie. See you Monday if I don’t see you before. Maybe us girls can do girl’s night on Sunday after the guys leave huh?”

“Sounds good to me!” Janey said. “See you all soon! Love you both!”

“Love you too Jay,” they both said as they left the house hand in hand. Janey went through the house and turned off all of the lights and dreamed of how beautiful her house was going to look for Christmas. She was going to decorate it just like she had always dreamed and she was finally going to meet Rosie, something that she’d wanted to do ever since she had started dating Chris. They had tried to coordinate their schedules so that Jay could go to one of the many Rosie tapings that the guys did but it never worked out.

Janey made her way up the stairs and stopped outside of Kate’s room. She could hear Chris inside talking to Kate as he was putting her to sleep. Kate was fast asleep but he was talking to her anyway. “Hey Katiebug,” he started, “you have no idea how much your Daddy is going to miss you while I am away. Remember that I’m always just a phone call away. You make sure that you take good care of your mommy for me. I will miss seeing your smiles every morning when you wake up me and mommy, I’ll miss playing with you in your playroom with Mickey and Minnie, I’ll miss making you breakfast and making funny faces with you, I’ll miss tucking you in at night and singing you your special song before you go to sleep, and mostly, I’ll miss hearing you laugh. You laugh just like your mommy do you know that? I love her so much Kate, just as much as I love you. I probably love you more but don’t tell mommy that okay because I don’t want her to get jealous. You have fun at school sweetie and make sure you give mommy big hugs and kisses because she’s going to miss you so much while you are there. Make your uncles and aunts lots of pretty pictures to put up at their houses. I promise to be back soon sweetie. I love you so much, goodnight Katiebug.” Janey stood outside of the room listening to Chris talk to their daughter. She could feel the tears streaming down her face and she didn’t want Chris to see that she was crying. She knew that he was too but he hated to see her cry for any reason so she went down to the bedroom to get ready for bed and knew that Chris would follow soon.

“Hey gorgeous,” Chris said as he climbed into bed next to Janey and switched on a CD that he had made for her of all of their favorite love songs.

“Hey you,” Janey said back as Chris held her tight. “Do you have any idea at all how much we’re going to miss you while you are gone?” Janey asked as she choked back the tears.

“Shhhh, don’t cry baby, I love you so much. I’m going to miss you too but you are right, Kate needs to start school and start living some kind of normal life.” He said as he kissed her forehead and ran his fingers through her hair.

“You are right. So remember what we were talking about before?” Janey asked with a slight smile on her face.

“Mmmmmm, yeah,” Chris said as he went to kiss Janey, “ya think we should start?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Janey said as Chris rolled over on top of her. He caressed every inch of her body and the two made love until they fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. They lay together in bed with each taking a turn being wide-awake and watching the other sleep. Janey loved to watch Chris sleep. She ran her fingers through his hair and just laid her fingers on his cheek. As she started to fall asleep she felt his warm arms around her as head lay on his chest. She could feel the evenness of his breathing and it lulled her to sleep. ‘Just imagine’ she thought to herself, ‘another child with his beautiful eyes’. The thought of it put a smile across her face as she fell asleep dreaming of their next child.

The next day was spent with the small family lying around the house together. They played games with Kate and just enjoyed every second they could together. Chris and Jay spent endless hours just watching the other interact with their daughter and savored every moment of it. These times would be non-existent for the next month and they just wanted to be together. They turned off the phone so that no one from the “outside world” would bother them for the day after Chris called Johnny to tell him that everything was set for Rosie. They ate a small dinner of all of their favorite foods and the day was over sooner than it started. Before too long it was time for Kate to go to bed and for Chris and Jay to spend their final night together before he left.

“Let me put her to bed tonight sweetie,” Chris said as he went to pick up Kate who had started to fall asleep in the middle of all of her toys.

“Okay, I’m just going to pick up these things then I’ll be up,” she said as she kissed her daughter’s head goodnight and Kate buried her head back into Chris’ shoulder.

“Daddy bye?” Kate asked as Chris brought her upstairs.

“Yup, Daddy’s got to go bye tomorrow, but I’ll be home soon okay?”

“Kay, for sanna caus?” she asked. Kate had recently learned about Santa and was very excited for Christmas.

“You bet, I’ll be home before that okay?”

“Kay, Daddy sig?” she asked as Chris laid her in her bed.

“Okay sweetie, what song do you want me to sing?”

“Lil tie on you?”

“You bet sweetie. Now lie down okay,” he said as he placed a kiss on her head and turned out the light to turn on the nightlight in her room. He began to sing Kate her favorite song, “Can this be true, tell me can this be real. How can I put into words how I feel? My life was complete, I thought it was whole. Why do I feel like I’m loosing control? I never thought that love could feel like this. Then you changed my world with just one kiss. How can it be that right here with me, there’s an angel. It’s a miracle. Your love is like a river. Peaceful and deep. Your soul is like a secret that I never could keep. When I look into your eyes I know that it’s true. God must have spent a little more time on you. In all of creation all things great and small. You were the one that surpasses it all. More precious than any diamond or pearl. They broke the mold when you came in this world. What I’m trying hard to figure out, just how I ever did without. The warmth of your smile the heart of a child that’s deep inside, leaves me purified”

Janey could hear Chris singing from outside of Kate’s room and she quietly went in. She knew that Kate was already asleep and that Chris was just singing for the sake of it at this point. She went up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder as she felt him trembling underneath her hand. As he started to sing the last verse she sang with him in perfect harmony.

“Never thought that love could feel like this. Then you changed my world with just one kiss. How can it be that right here with me there’s an angel. It’s a miracle. Your love is like a river peaceful and deep. Your soul is like a secret that I never could keep. When I look into your eyes I know that it’s true. God must have spent a little more time on you.” They sang together to their daughter and to each other with tears in their eyes. The song meant so much to both of them as it truly showed how much they meant to each other. They couldn’t imagine their lives apart. Chris and Janey hugged and looked down at their daughter sleeping peacefully and headed down to their room. They spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms for the last time for a month and cherished every second together.

The next morning was rough for the Kirkpatricks, as Chris had to leave for the last month of the tour. He barely made it out the door with Kate tugging at his legs and crying. Janey promised to go and meet them at the bus but that she needed to get Kate down first before she left. Sarah came over from next door to watch Kate while Jay went to meet up with the girls to say goodbye to the guys. It was a sad scene as everyone was crying and hugging each other. The girls knew that the guys would call often so they weren’t too concerned but cold beds at night was never fun and that was what they all had to look forward to for the next month. They all decided to get together that night to discuss all the plans for the houses and when they were going to start getting things ready. Elley and Cay were going to be at Janey’s the next day for Kate’s first day of school. The girls both knew that Kate would be fine, she loved to meet new people and play; however, Janey was going to be a wreck.

Ring, Ring, Ring……

Janey could hear the phone ringing from the other side of the house and she ran to get it before the machine picked it up. “Kirkpatrick residence can I help you?” she answered.

“Hey Mrs. Kirkpatrick how are ya?” Chris said into the phone. Janey was so happy to hear his voice.

“Okay, its very quiet around here right now,” she said sadly into the phone.

“She’s at school huh? How many times have you looked at your watch to go and pick her up?” he asked. Janey laughed as she thought of how well Chris knew her.

“Every fifteen minutes.” She laughed and heard Chris laugh on the other end. “I’m going to meet the girls right now though so we can start shopping. It will be nice having her in school so I can get things done around here.” Janey lied into the phone. She missed Kate so much when she wasn’t with her and it was killing her not to hear the giggle of her daughter through the house.

“Liar! I know you better than that. But it will be good for you girls. Johnny said to have fun shopping and that he knows you’ll do a great job. They’ll be there in 3 weeks to check out the houses and start taping the guy’s houses as soon as they are done. Just let Johnny know. For our place they are taping on the 15^th so keep the date open. Will Kate have school that day?”

“What day is that Friday?” she asked.

“You’re asking the wrong guy sweetie, but yeah I think so.”

“She’ll be in school in the morning. Do you need me to take her out that day?”

“Actually it will be good that she’s in school that morning. That way they can do the taping around the house while she’s in school and then we can do the taping with all of us when she gets home.”

“Sounds good to me. You gonna call later to talk to her?” she asked.

“Of course. I need to tuck her in of course. I’ll let you go out with the girls. Give them all hugs from their boys okay?”

“Okay hun. I love you Chris and I miss you already.”

“I miss you too sweetie and I love you more. I’ll talk to you tonight. Bye”

“Bye,” Jay said into the phone as she turned and saw Elley standing behind her. Elley gave her a hug as she saw her friend crying.

“Chris?” she asked.

“Who else? Lets get out of here, all this quiet is driving me crazy.” She said as she dried her tears.

“You got it,” Elley said and the girls headed out for shopping.

**************************************************************************************************

The next few weeks the girls were busy preparing all of the houses for the Rosie show. Having Kate in school turned out to be a great thing. After the first few days of dropping her off and some tears from Kate she was all set. She was meeting new friends and bringing home new pictures every day that she made in school. Her teachers were fantastic and Janey couldn’t have been happier with her choice of schools. Kate was doing great and although she missed her father, he managed to call every night and sing to her before she went to bed. She was also getting so excited about Christmas coming. She would help the girls as much as she could with the decorations on the houses and she loved just being around the grown ups. Anything that she could do to be her mom’s helper was fun to her.

Before they knew it, December 10^th was upon them and it was time to show off all of the great work that the girls had done. Justin, Joey, JC and Lance weren’t home for the tapings of their homes but they were shown the footage and dubbed their voices over top of the tours that the girls were giving. They were so proud of the work that was done on the homes. Everyone came back into Florida for the last couple concerts of the tour and was excited to stay in their own homes. The last four concerts were in Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa and they were wrapping in Orlando. The girls attended the final concert but were so busy that they weren’t able to attend the other concerts.

Finally the big day arrived and everyone arrived at the Kirkpatrick’s bright and early. The bedrooms were set up for hair and make up and everyone was running around the house making sure everything looked perfect. Janey dropped Kate off at school and came back to the house to make sure everything ran smoothly.

“Hey you,” Chris said as he caught her as she came into the house.

“Hey sweetie. What do you think?” she asked as they walked through the house.

“I think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that you went through all of this. You girls are simply amazing.” He said as he pulled her close to kiss her. They had lots of time to make up for and this was just the beginning of it.

“Well, we’ll see what Rosie thinks huh? I don’t I’ve ever been nervous to meet anyone like I am to meet her.” Janey said as she shook. Chris pulled her close and spoke softly in her ear.

“She’s going to love you. I’ve told her so much about you and she’s wanted to meet you about as much as you’ve wanted to meet her. She’s seen pictures of Kate and can’t wait to see her. You know that she’s going to spoil her right?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve seen the stuff she’s sent Brianna! I just hope she likes the…” Chris interrupted her with a kiss.

“Will you please relax? She’ll love it, she’ll love you, she’ll love Kate, and I love you.” He said as he kissed her on the head. “Now, go upstairs. The wardrobe people are sifting through yours and Kate’s closets for something for you to wear. Go get dressed and I’ll go and pick Kate up from school. I want to surprise her.” Chris hadn’t gotten to see Kate yet and he couldn’t wait to see his little girl.

“DADDY!!! DADDY!!! DADDY!!!” Kate came screaming across the room as Chris came to pick her up at school.

“Hey Katiebug! How are you sweetie?” he said as he kissed her head.

“I miss you,” she said as she buried her head in his chest.

“Hi, you must be Chris, I’m Jennifer Kate’s teacher,” the short brown haired young lady came up to say to him.

“Yeah, I’m Chris Kirkpatrick, Kate’s father. I know I’m a little early to pick her up but I haven’t seen her in a while and we kind of have a busy day today.”

“No problem, Jay told me you might be early today with everything going on. Pretty exciting huh?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be Kate’s first appearance on TV. So we have to get this little one home for a nap and to get all dressed up.”

“I pretty?” she asked looking at her father with wide eyes.

“You bet sweetie. And guess who’s coming over today?” he asked her.

“Sync????” she asked with a huge smile on her face.

“Yup. All your aunts and uncles are coming over today to see you.”

“Wosie come too daddy?” she asked.

“Rosie is coming too. I can’t believe she knows all this stuff.”

“She’s a very bright little girl. She made pictures for everyone today here you go, you can take them all home with you.”

“I make piture daddy.”

“You sure did. These are beautiful Kate. Who are they for?”

“Elley, Cay, Juju, C, Oey, an Kimmy.” She said pointing out each picture.

“Wow, these are so pretty Katiebug. Well, we have to go. Thanks again Jen I appreciate it.”

“No problem, it was nice to meet you,” she said as she handed Chris the rest of Kate’s things.

“It was nice to meet you as well. Thanks for taking such great care of our daughter.”

“Its my pleasure. Bye Kate! See you soon!” Jen said to the little girl.

“Bye bye bye!” Kate said in her little voice. Jen laughed at her comment. Chris and Kate headed out to the car. He was so happy to have his daughter back in his arms again. It felt like so much longer than 3 weeks that they were away so it was nice to know that they would have lots of time together now.

“We’re home!” Chris called into the house as everyone was finally there and gathering in the living room to go over the show set up. All of the guys and girls came over to say hello to Kate and Chris, as Kate was engrossed in a sea of aunts, uncles and hugs and kisses.

“I’m going to bring her up for a little nap while we finish up down here sound good?” Chris asked Janey.

“Sure sweetie,” she said from the couch, “bye sweetie, you take a good nap.”

“Kay mommy, love you!” she blew her mom a kiss.

“Love you too.” Jay said and she blew a kiss back.

“My goodness she’s getting so big,” JC remarked. “She gets bigger each time I see her. She looks more like you every day Jay.”

“Thanks JC. She misses all of you guys when you are gone. Its so nice of you all to call every night.”

Everyone sat around and talked and caught up on life on tour and life at home. The girls had lots of funny stories to share with the guys about the decorating experience. Between buying trees and finding just the right things for each house it ended up being quite an experience. They finished going over the show set up and Rosie arrived. All the girls were so excited to meet her. Cay was the only one who got to meet her previously when she released her CD but that was it.

“You have such a lovely house Janey,” Rosie said to her as she gave Rosie the grand tour.

“Thank you so much,” Jay said as Chris gave her hand a squeeze.

“You’ve got a wonderful wife Chris. You are a lucky woman.”

“Thanks. I think so, most of the time,” she joked with Chris. Janey heard crying coming from down in Kate’s room so she excused herself to go and get the little girl and get her all dressed.

“I pwitty mommy?” she asked.

“You are very pretty sweetie. You wanna meet Rosie?” she asked. Janey and Kate watched the Rosie Show every time the guys were on so Kate knew who she was.

“Yeah! I meet Wosie mommy!”

“Lets go then,” Janey said as she picked up the little girl and headed downstairs where everyone was sitting in the living room in their assigned seats. Chris stood up as Janey walked in the room and went over to take Kate.

“Katiebug can you say hi?” he asked as he brought her over to Rosie.

“Hi Wosie,” Kate said, not nervous at all. She was such a happy little girl.

“Hey little one! You look so pretty today. Is this your daddy.”

“Is daddy, and mommy, an juju, an elley, an caycay, an laaaaaaaance, an c, an oey, an kimmy, an bianna” she said as she introduced everyone in the room. Everyone laughed at how cute Kate was and she was passed around to say hi to all of her aunts and uncles.

“Thanks Kate for telling me who everyone is.” Rosie said as Kate giggled.

“We’re ready when you all are,” the director said and everyone took their seats.

“Welcome everyone to a very special episode of the Rosie O’Donnell Show. Today, instead of being in our studio, we’re here in Florida with my favorite boys NSYNC!!!! Not only that but we are also joined today by their family so that we can all get a look into their lives here in Florida. So where should we start guys?” she asked and they went through the motions of introducing everyone in the group and their significant others.

“So Justin, where’s Britney?” Rosie asked. The group let out a collective groan that they were hoping wasn’t going to be shown on television and they also hoped Rosie didn’t catch. They didn’t want to answer to that one.

“Well, she’s still on tour so she couldn’t be here today.” He answered calmly.

“But are you two still together?”

“Oh you bet, stronger than ever.” At this the girls all exchanged a knowing look.

“I understand that you have some news to share with us JC don’t you?” Rosie said looking at JC and Elley who looked lovingly into each other’s eyes and smiled.

“Actually yes we do. I introduced my girl Elley here a minute ago but there’s something extra special about her. This is the future Mrs. Joshua Chasez.” Everyone clapped for their friends as JC gave Elley a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Wow! That’s fantastic JC. So another NSYNCer off the market huh?” she joked.

“You bet! So which one of the two of you is next?” JC said looking at Joey and Justin and they laughed and played off of each other.

“And Cay and Lance, you have some news too don’t you?” she asked looking at the couple.

“Yeah we do. Actually, Cay and I are expecting.”

“Fantastic. So another NSYNC wedding and another NSYNC baby huh?” Rosie asked, “When are you due Cay?”

“I’m due in June. I’m actually due on Jay’s birthday.” She replied looking at her sister who hadn’t been told this piece of news and Janey started to get teary.

“Yeah, thanks for telling me that on national television sis!” Janey said to her sister as she got up to give her a hug. Rosie spent some time talking to the children about what they wanted for Christmas and Justin butted in on what he wanted as well. Everyone laughed as they still called him “the infant” at times. He had as much fun playing around with the girl’s toys as they did. Brianna and Kate were so well behaved for everything that was going on. The whole day was just perfect and went off without a hitch.

“So are there any fun Christmas traditions that you have?” Rosie asked as Chris and Lance looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Cay and Janey just laughed at this comment.

“Okay, so tell me, what is it?” Rosie asked as she looked at the two couples.

“Do I get to tell her about the music sweetie?” Janey said as she looked up at Chris and pouted like Kate and he both did so well.

“Oh dear lord, go ahead. I know I’ll never get it right.” Chris joked. Janey and Cay spoke animately about their Christmas traditions of the Sinclair family and the rules of the Christmas music. By the time they were done everyone was laughing and Rosie just thought it was priceless.

“Your family sounds like one I would have liked to have grown up in.” Rosie said to the girls.

“Are you kidding? You have fit right in Rosie,” Cay said to the host.

“Well, I have to thank all of you for letting us come into your homes and get a little glimpse of how you guys all spend Christmas together. And I believe that you guys have one more surprise in store don’t’ you?” Rosie asked as the girls all looked at each other. They had no clue what this was all about. Each of the guys went under the tree, which was already overflowing with gifts, and pulled out a box for each of the girls. They all looked at each other with curious looks on their faces and looked at the guys.

“Well, aren’t you going to open them?” Justin asked. He gave his gift to Rosie seeing as Britney wasn’t around. Kate went over to her mother to help her open her gift and Brianna went up to Kim to help her open her gift. Inside the beautifully wrapped paper was a CD for each of the girls entitled “NLOVE with NSYNC”

“Wait a minute,” Kim said to the guys, “this isn’t?”

“Yeah, actually it is. This is the newest CD from us. It will be coming out the week before Valentine’s Day and it is a compilation CD of different love songs.” Joey started.

“The girls gave us this idea last year and we just kind of went with it.” Justin continued.

“They all had ideas of songs that they wanted us to cover and songs they wanted us to sing again.” JC said.

“So we decided that we would release it for Valentine’s Day at the girls request and make it our newest CD.” Lance said.

“But,” Chris finished, “This CD is very special because it has a special dedication. Each song is dedicated to a different one of the girls and then the rest of the songs are dedicated either to people that have touched our lives, like our mothers and you’ll notice that there’s one on there for you too Rosie.” Chris said as Janey hugged him.

“Wow, you even dedicated one to me?” Rosie asked with tears in her eyes.

“You bet!” JC said, “You’ve been such a huge supporter of us all along and we really appreciate it. So we count you as one of our girls.”

“Well, this is probably the coolest Christmas present anyway, thank you guys!” Rosie said as she got up to hug the guys. “Well, before we go do we get a song?” she asked as everyone stood up around the tree. The guys sang some stuff off of their first Christmas album, it would be decided later which song was used although Janey secretly hoped that it would be “O Holy Night” because that was her favorite song.

“We’d once again like to thank the members of NSYNC and their families for spending our Christmas special this year with us. Thanks ladies and you guys and our two little friends over here Kate and Brianna. Next year we get to meet your little one right Lance and Caytlyn?” she asked.

“You bet,” they said together and smiled.

“Well, on behalf of all of us here today…”Rosie began.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!” everyone said together and waved and with that the show was over. The crew started to get things packed up as the friends all walked around the house together and talked. They, as always, ended up in the kitchen talking over coffee and cookies and the girls were running around chasing one of their uncles.

“Thanks again everyone, I think this came out really well,” Rosie said to the group. The girls all nodded, they really outdid themselves on all the work they did on the houses. “I’ve got to get going but I’ll see you all soon!” she said as she went around to hug everyone in the group. Janey was so relieved that the day was over. Now she could concentrate on just enjoying her holiday.

Janey and Caytlyn’s parents were coming down for the holiday that year and Cay and Lance had decided that they would host Christmas at their home seeing as Janey did Thanksgiving. Most everyone else was home with family and friends and it was only the two couples in Florida. They didn’t mind. The girls’ parents had fun playing with their granddaughter who they rarely got to see and finally got to see Cay and Lance’s new home. Cay had started to have morning sickness and spent most of Christmas morning in the bathroom.

Christmas morning at the Kirkpatrick house however, was a different story. Kate was up at the crack of dawn and running into Janey and Chris’ bedroom to wake them up.

“Mommy! Daddy! Sana here!” she giggled at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t wait to see what Santa had brought her. There were presents from everywhere for the little girl.

“Guess we have to get up huh?” Chris said as he turned to give Janey a kiss on the cheek and then turned his attention to Kate. “Did Santa come Kate?”

“Sana here!” she giggled as her father picked her up.

“Well we have to wake up your mommy how should we do that?” Chris asked her as Kate laughed back.

“Tikle mommy!” she laughed and Chris dove right in and started to tickle Janey. After a few minutes they were all up and on their way down to the family where they had all of the presents under one of the trees. Janey kept some of them hidden still because they just wouldn’t’ fit under the tree. Janey went and made Chris some coffee and he and Kate went to the tree. Chris had the video camera out to capture every moment of the day. They all had so much fun watching Kate opening up her new toys and Chris and Janey had bought each other some lovely gifts.

For Chris, Janey got him a vacation to wherever he wanted. Just the two of them, whenever and wherever. All the guys and girls had offered to take Kate for a week and they’d switch off where she stayed so that Chris and Jay could just get away from it all. Chris was so excited. For Janey he bought her a beautiful wrap of sapphires and diamonds that would fit perfectly around her engagement ring. He also got her the matching earrings and bracelet to go along with it. Janey cried at the sight of everything. She was really emotional lately and seeing as it was just about her time of the month, she figured it was par for the course.

The family went over to Cay and Lance’s place for dinner that night and more presents were exchanged between the families. The entire week was like that because of everyone coming and going. Kate was in her glory and had so much fun just going around and getting all of the attention. The grandparents were so proud of their daughters and the lives that they were leading and they just loved their choices of husbands. Katie, the girls’ mother, just loved both of the boys so much and the fact that she finally had a granddaughter and another grandchild on the way was the best Christmas gift that she could have gotten. The girls also gave her an autographed picture of Rosie that they got while she was in town as well as a special tape of the show when they were on. They wouldn’t let their mother watch the show because Lance and Cay wanted to surprise the families on Christmas day with the news that they were expecting. All in all, Christmas was a wonderful between the families.

Shortly after the holiday the parents had to fly back home and they sadly said their goodbyes to the girls and Kate. They all wished they lived closer but they understood that in order for the guys to effectively work, this was where they had to be and it was better than California where Chris and Lance’s businesses were out of.

New Years Eve was spent with all of their friends at JC and Elley’s home. Everyone toasted in the New Year and celebrated the wonderful friendships they had. They were excited for all of the events of the coming year. They’d have a wedding to attend and a new baby to join the group by next year and they couldn’t be happier. Johnny had given the guys the next 4 months off to just relax with their wives and girlfriends and it would allow them some time to just be normal for a while. This was probably the one thing they were happiest about. They could just go on living for a while. They’d never be anonymous but at least this was the closest thing they’d have for a while. At midnight everyone kissed and hugged each other and retreated back to their respective homes.

Janey and Chris drove home holding hands all the way and thinking of their life. They were hoping that it would continue on the track it was going and said a silent prayer that they would soon have another child to grace their family. Until then, they were content with their lives and couldn’t have been any happier.

Life Doesn’t Always Turn Out as Planned

“Hey there! Anyone home?” Justin yelled as he arrived at Chris and Janey’s home. The house was way too quiet for this family and he knew that Kate must be at school and Chris and Jay were off doing something. “Janey? Chris? Are you guys here?” he yelled as he went through the house.

“Hey Justin,” Janey said as she came out of her music room. They had turned one of the rooms in the house into Janey’s music room as soon as Kate went to school so that Jay could concentrate more on her music. She really missed performing and she really wanted to start doing some more working now that she had free time on her hands. The first month of Kate going to school was rough but once Jay got into the swing of things she began to cherish the moments while her daughter was in school. It gave Chris and Jay some time to just be together as NSYNC was taking a few months off and it also gave them time to get work done. “What’s going on?” she asked as she looked at his bloodshot eyes.

“Oh, its nothing,” he lied.

“Yeah, remember, I’m a mother now, I can tell when something’s wrong Justin. What’s going on sweetie?” she asked as she poured him a cup of coffee and grabbed herself a Diet Coke. “You wanna talk about it?” she asked as Justin started to tear up. Janey went over and put her arm around him and Justin started sobbing into her arms.

“I just can’t believe it Jay, I just can’t believe it,” he whimpered into her shoulder.

“Britney?” she asked trying not to pry but she was pretty sure that this was what the problem was. “What happened sweetie?”

“She…she….” he stammered, “She lied Jay! She fucking lied to me!”

“What did she say?”

“Well, you know how she wasn’t here over the holidays and all right?” Janey remembered that Justin was very upset that Brit wasn’t there for the Rosie taping and for Thanksgiving. It turned out that she wasn’t with him for Christmas either or New Years and Justin was just crushed.

“Yeah, I know that really hurt you,” she tried to sound consoling to her friend.

“Well, she said that she was with her family. Yeah, she wasn’t. She was off fucking Wade again!” Janey just held Justin close as he broke down in sobs. She knew that someday it would come to this. Justin had given Brit everything in him and this was just a devastating blow to him. Everyone knew that someday he would realize that she just didn’t care for him the way that he cared for her but they weren’t sure when it would all come to a head.

“Justin, I’m so sorry sweetie,” Janey said as she held him close. She saw Chris come walking into the kitchen because he heard Justin yelling. He was concerned about his friend. Janey just looked at him and nodded and mouthed the word Britney and Chris was immediately worried about his best friend.

“What do I do Jay? Huh? What do I do now?” He asked between tears.

“You move on Jus. You are going to be just fine without her. You were fine without her before and you’ll be fine now. You are an incredible musician and an amazing singer. Now some other wonderful person out there will get to find all of that out.” Janey said with a reassuring voice.

“Man, don’t worry about her,” Chris said as he came up behind Janey and put one hand on her shoulder and the other on the shoulder of his best friend. “Hey,” he said and smiled.

“She’s such a fucking bitch! God, I’m sorry guys, is Kate home?” he asked looking concerned. He knew that Jay and Chris weren’t too big on swearing around Kate. She seemed to be picking up every other word she heard these days and that was the last thing that they needed.

“Nah, she’s at school. No worries man. How did you find out?” Chris asked cautiously. Justin explained how Brit was supposed to be staying at his place and she had left her cell phone over at his place last week. It rang that morning and Justin picked it up and on the other end was Wade singing a song to her. A song that Justin and Wade had written together. It just made Chris’ blood boil to hear what Wade and Brit did to his friend. Janey put a re-assuring hand on Chris to try and calm him down. She didn’t want to see his temper get the better of him.

“What a slut!” Chris finally said when Justin explained how he called Brit and confronted her about everything. She of course denied it at first but when he said that he had already spoken to Wade she couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. Turned out that they had been dating for months and the reason she had been away so much was because she was hiding her new engagement ring that Wade had given her from Justin. Janey and Chris stared at each other in amazement that this girl had the nerve to do this.

“Ya think it’s too late to change the CD?” Justin asked. He had dedicated “My Kind of Girl” to her on the CD and he just wanted her name off of there.

“I don’t really think so, the release is next week, that could be rather pricey don’t you think?” Chris asked, when he saw Justin’s head sink low he immediately regretted that he said that and tried to take it back. “Let’s call Johnny and see what he says okay?” Chris said as he put a reassuring hand on his friends shoulder.

“Thanks man,” Justin said, “Do you mind if I hang around here for the day? I just don’t want to go home.”

“No problem sweetie. Listen, Kate has to be picked up from school why don’t you guys go together. A little 2-year-old time might be just what you need to cheer you up Justin. I know Kate will flip out when you two show up.”

“That’s a great idea,” Chris said as he grabbed his jacket. It might be Florida, but February in Florida tended to get kind of chilly too.

“Thanks Janey. I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.” Justin said as he gave her a hug.

“No worries sweetie. Go and get Kate before she starts driving her teachers crazy.” She said as she shooed the boys out of the house. Janey went to her studio to put away her flute and thought about the whole situation the girls all knew it was going to come to this but they weren’t quite sure how Justin was going to take it. She was happy that Justin had the right frame of mind to come over to their place because she wasn’t sure he could handle this one alone. Justin had been in love with Britney ever since their MMC days and this was just going to be difficult. Jay knew that Justin spending time with Kate would be a good thing but that wasn’t going to heal his broken heart. That was only going to be done with another girl.

Ring, Ring, Ring…the phone rang and brought Janey from her thoughts of Justin and his current crisis.

“Hey Kirkpatrick’s,” Janey said into the phone.

“Hey girl, what’s going on?” Janey heard the familiar voice of Elley on the other end of the phone.

“Hey sweetie, it’s been a rough morning. How are you?” she asked.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go dress shopping with me today. What’s going on? Is something wrong with Kate?” She said sounding worried.

“Nah, its not her, it’s the other infant,” Janey said with a slight smile in her voice. It was always so nice to hear that her friends were so concerned about her daughter.

“Justin?” Elley asked.

“Yup. I guess it’s actually over this time.” She said.

“Justin and Britney are over??? WOO HOO!!!” Elley screamed into the phone.

“Don’t get too excited quite yet. I’m happy she’s gone too but Justin’s not doing too good right now and I’m a little worried about him.” Janey explained what happened. Justin wouldn’t mind any of the girls or guys knowing what was going on. He’d probably be relieved he didn’t have to do the explaining himself.

“What a slut!” Elley exclaimed, “You know, I’m so glad they got rid of Wade when they did. I can’t believe that ass!” Elley was on a rampage and Janey just let her express her frustrations. It was always the best thing to do. “Well, what are the guys going to do today?” she asked.

“I think hang around here and play with Kate. Justin always lights up when she’s around so I thought some 2-year-old time might be just the trick to bring a smile back to his face. But get this one, he wants to change the dedications on the CD.”

“Are you kidding me? How the hell are they going to do that? It comes out next week.”

“Yes, I realize this, that’s what Chris said at first as well. Then he looked at Justin’s face and said that they would at least call Johnny and see what can be done.”

“I guess it can’t hurt. So are you going to play with the boys or do you wanna go out with me, Cay and Kim shopping for my dress? I want to get you girls fitted now. I know Cay’s size will change before the wedding but at least we can get a general idea and get her alterations closer.”

“Sounds good to me, I think the guys are just going to hang around here. Tell Jace and the other guys that if they want to come over they can. We can all cook out tonight or something over here.”

“Awesome, I’ll let JC know. The guys haven’t hung out in a while.”

“Okay,” Janey said as she felt a wave of nausea come over her. She hadn’t been sick all day and all of the sudden she felt like she was going to vomit. “I’ll see you soon,” she said quietly.

“Yeah, hey Jay, are you okay?” Elley asked as she noticed a change in her friend’s voice.

“Yeah, I just,” Janey started to say and then ran for the bathroom where she proceeded to be ill. Elley was screaming into the phone because she wasn’t sure where her friend had gone. She got worried when Jay didn’t come right back and went straight over to Chris and Jay’s home after saying a quick goodbye to JC.

When Elley arrived Jay was coming out of the bathroom and was pale. “Are you okay?” Elley asked as she ran into the house.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bug or something, I’m all good. You ready to go?” she asked.

“Do you want to wait for the guys to come back first?”

“Nah, we’ll call them from the car and that will be all good. Are we going to go and pick up the girls?” Janey asked as she got into Elley’s car.

“Actually they are meeting us there. Jay, are you sure you are okay? You were fine at first on the phone and now you’re looking rather peaked.” Elley asked looking at her friend concerned.

“El, I’m fine. Just a little nausea, I’ll be fine.”

“Nausea huh?” Elley went into full out nurse mode. She might not have been practicing for a few years but it didn’t make her not be concerned about her friends when she found out they weren’t feeling good. She was always the first over the house with medicine and bringing people to doctors. “When was your last cycle girl?” she asked.

Janey took a minute to think. She hadn’t even realized that she missed her cycle in December but she wrote that off to the stress of everything going on and she seemed to be late for January. As she tried to figure out on her fingers how long it had been her face went pale again. “Um, yeah, that would be November.”

“November? Are you shitting me girl? Maybe we should take a pit stop at the drug store and get you a test?” she asked. Janey didn’t want to take anything away from Cay’s pregnancy or Elley’s wedding. This was their time. Her life was already about as close to perfect as it was going to get.

“Nah, I couldn’t be,” Janey lied. She knew that it was extremely likely that she was. It wasn’t as if her and Chris were trying to NOT get pregnant. They flat out said that they were trying and they were having a lot of fun at that. It was tough with a little one down the hall but they found their ways. “Ya think?” she questioned as Elley pulled into Walgreen’s.

“Duh!” Elley said. “You wanna call Chris now or would you like to surprise him like last time?” Elley said jokingly. Everyone knew how Jay had told Chris she was pregnant with Kate. At least this time they were on speaking terms.

“We don’t even know that I’m pregnant El, lets wait until later and see what the test says okay? Lets take care of your wedding. So what colors are you using?” Elley proceeded to tell Jay all about the plans for the beautiful wedding that they had planned for December. It was going to be a Christmas wedding a week before the holiday and it would just be gorgeous. They had planned the wedding for up in Missouri where Elley was from so a lot of the wedding planning was being done in the next weeks when Elley and JC went up to visit her family. It was going to be beautiful.

As Elley was talking Janey was figuring out in her head when she’d have the baby. ‘Lets see,’ she thought, ‘if I got pregnant during Thanksgiving weekend, which is entirely likely, then the baby would be due in August. That’s perfect. Gives me time to not be huge for Elley’s wedding and all will be good.’ Jay sat back with a satisfied look on her face. In her heart she knew that she was pregnant and she couldn’t wait to share the news with Chris. She folded her hands over her stomach as Elley continued to talk about all the wedding arrangements. It was just going to be gorgeous and she couldn’t be happier for her friend.

“Hey girls!” Cay said as she came towards Elley and Jay. She was five months pregnant and was showing quite a bit by this point. “You aren’t seriously going to make me try on dresses today are you El? I mean look at me?” she said as she held her stomach and turned to the side. The girls all laughed at Cay. She was showing but certainly wasn’t huge. She looked so happy now that all of her morning sickness had finally subsided. She was real sick in the beginning and the doctor was a bit concerned about her asthma but she seemed to be holding up well. Lance took good care of her and tended to all of her needs. He brought her nachos and ice cream when she had cravings and was just the perfect husband.

“Shut up girl,” Kim said to her friend, “Joey and I have been trying to have a baby for how long now? I can’t seem to get pregnant worth a damn.”

“Well, you’re due next girl,” Cay said to Kim, “Janey already has Kate and JC and Elley are just having fun right now so you’re next.” She said with a smile. Janey and Elley looked at each other and Janey shot her a look as if to say ‘say something and die!’

“Yeah, here’s hoping.” Kim sighed. “At least I have Brianna for now though right. Instant family, no morning sickness, no stretch marks and no weight gain.” She said with a smile. Brianna had spent the last 2 months with Kim and Joey. Kelly was quickly getting out of the picture. Her new husband had children of his own and they were more interested in making their own babies than Brianna. Joey and Kim were giving serious consideration to fighting for sole custody of the little girl and were planning on making their decision soon.

“All I have to say is if ANY of you hoes are pregnant for my wedding I’m going to have to beat you down. I don’t need any of you going into labor at my wedding,” she joked with her friends as she looked directly at Janey. She figured that if Jay was already pregnant that she wouldn’t be pregnant for the wedding but the way her and Chris had been lately anything was possible.

“Well, lets go and have some fun huh girls?” they all nodded in agreement and headed inside to the bridal salon. The girls were greeted warmly by the owner of the salon and were led into a private room where they could try on dresses. The attendant came in with champagne to toast to the happy couple, which Cay declined to have, and they grabbed her some ginger ale. Janey looked at the glass and wasn’t quite sure what to do. She didn’t want to give away to people that she might just be pregnant so she decided to take a chance and just have a little sip. Caytlyn looked over at her sister and saw that she wasn’t drinking the champagne. This wasn’t like her; Jay was the type that would always have a quick drink especially some fine wine or champagne.

The girls all had fun trying on dresses and watching Elley try on a ton of wedding gowns. Each one looked more beautiful than the next. They finally decided on the perfect dress for her. Ironically enough it was the dress that she had been dreaming about all her life. It was a strapless dress that had crystals beaded throughout the dress with a beautiful wide skirt. She looked like a princess and felt like one in it. The girls put in their order for the bridesmaids dresses and Janey’s dress for matron of honor and they were good to go. The girls would be wearing beautiful blue gowns that were just perfect for all of them. The three bridesmaids would be in baby blue and Janey would be in a gorgeous navy blue. They would all have shawls that they would wear that were a beautiful light blue that was almost white. They took some time to look over some little flower girl dresses for Brianna and Kate and everyone decided that the two little girls were just going to look so cute.

“Hey Elley, who’s the other bridesmaid going to be? I mean, obviously I’m with Lance, Kim is with Joey and Jay is with Chris but what about Justin?” Cay asked her friend. “You aren’t seriously thinking about having the diva in the wedding are you?” Cay hated Britney with a passion. Being a musician she knew that Brit didn’t sing most of her stuff and that which she did was so heavily mixed that it wasn’t really even her singing in the end. She was just pretty and that’s how she got where she was in the business.

“Yeah, I have to figure that one out. Oh and No way in Hell would I have that bitch in the wedding. Especially not after what happened today.” Elley explained.

“Why?” Kim asked, “What happened today?” Jay and Elley looked at each other and explained the current saga of Brit and Justin. When they told the girls that they were officially over they screamed with excitement. “So lets invite Chele down to visit!” Kim immediately said. Chele and Justin had become really good friends but due to Britney they never had anything more than that. Jay and Elley exchanged knowing looks and had already figured that they would invite her down to visit in a few weeks and very likely, she would be the 3^rd bridesmaid in the wedding.

“Yeah,” Janey began, “we’ll have to do that girls. Well, hey, I need to get home and see how much Justin and Chris have trashed it with the baby so I’ll see you girls later?” Jay asked as she glanced over at Elley. Elley could tell she was going to be sick again soon so they wanted to disappear as fast as possible.

“Okay, see you girls later. Next week for the party at the compound if not sooner right?” Cay asked.

“You bet. Love ya girls!” Jay said as they all went around and gave hugs to each other. Janey rushed towards the car and Elley quickly got in beside her and they took off. As soon as they saw a McDonald’s Jay went running inside with her hand over her mouth and proceeded to vomit. Elley stood behind her with some wet paper towels so that she could cool down her face.

“You gonna be okay?” Elley asked and Janey nodded. Morning sickness was no stranger to her. When she was pregnant with Kate she had a horrible bout of it that almost landed her in the hospital for dehydration. “Do you believe me now that you are pregnant?” she asked as she smiled at her friend.

“Well, is JC home?” Janey asked.

“Nope, he’s at your place. You wanna go to the house and do the test before I bring you home to share the news with the proud father?” she joked.

“Yeah, lets do that,” Janey said as the color began to return to her face. “What a Valentine’s Day gift huh? He gives me a CD with a song dedicated to me on it and I give him another mouth to feed.” Janey said as she began to worry about what Chris was going to say.

“Do you seriously think that he’s going to be upset about this?” Elley asked as she looked at Janey while she washed her face and rinsed her mouth out.

“Honestly, no, I think he’s going to be thrilled to death. I just hate being pregnant with him away again. It was so hard last time and I just don’t want to go through it again.” Janey said as she got tears in her eyes. The girls headed out to the car and towards Elley and JC’s place so that they could do the test without the guys around.

“Well, at least this time you have all of us around instead of me in Florida and Cay on tour with the guys.” Elley said as they pulled into the driveway. “Don’t worry sweetie, if for some reason he’s gone, we’ll take care of you. I promise.” She said as she gave her friend a reassuring squeeze on the arm. “Lets go find out that I’m right again huh?” Elley joked as she grabbed the bag from the backseat.

It took only a couple minutes to confirm what they already knew. Janey was torn between being extremely giddy and worried. Elley convinced her that this was a good thing. She couldn’t wait to have another niece or nephew running around.

“I wonder if this will be the twins?” Jay said to her friend as they headed towards Janey and Chris’ place to go meet up with everyone else.

“Twins?” Elley asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Well, they run in my family. Both sides of it. Everyone always said that either Cay or I would be the next to have twins and seeing as we know that Cay only has one inside of there it could be me.” The idea of it made Janey all lightheaded again. She was glad they were coming up on the house. “Well, this ought to go over big. Can you make sure they are all downstairs while I head to the bathroom?” Janey asked as she ran inside to go be ill again.

“Whew! What was that?” Justin asked Elley as he saw Janey run past him at warp speed towards the bathroom.

“She just had to go. She drank a bottle of water at the salon and has been bugging me the whole way home to stop.” Elley joked with Justin hoping that he would believe her lie. “How are you doing curly?” Elley said as she gave Justin a hug.

“I’ve had my better days, but I’ll survive. Please spare me the I told you so speech today. You can give it to me later okay?” he said with a smile. Elley was glad to see him smile; Jay had said he was pretty torn up earlier.

“Okay, but remember its coming okay?” she said and gave him a hug.

“Hey guys,” Jay said as she emerged from the bathroom with no color whatsoever in her face.

“You look like ass!” Justin said, “You feeling okay mom?” he asked her.

“Thanks so much for your support Justin and yeah, I feel fine. Where’s my baby girl?” she asked when she didn’t hear Kate anywhere in the house.

“Sleeping,” Chris said as he came up behind Janey. “I expected you home about an hour ago. Is everything okay?” he asked with a look of concern on his face.

“Yeah sweetie, everything’s fine,” Janey lied and gave him a hug. He looked down at her into her brown eyes and knew that she was lying.

“Do we need to talk? I can kick these guys outta here if we have to.” He explained as he gave Justin a look to get out of the room. Justin took Elley down to the game room where JC and Joey were down playing video games. Chris took Janey’s hand and led her out to the back porch of the house that overlooked the lake. Their backyard was just gorgeous and the two loved to sit out there and watch the sun go down as often as they could. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?” he asked, as he looked Janey directly in the eyes. He could always tell when something was wrong.

“Nothing sweetie really,” she lied and looked away from him.

“Jay, you know I love you but you are a horrible liar you know.” He joked and gave her a squeeze and a kiss on the head. “Please tell me what’s going on. It’s not like you to not come right home and I’ve been worried. Are you okay?” he asked with a look of concern on his face.

“Sweetie, seriously, nothing is wrong. Actually, everything’s pretty much right with the world right now,” she said with a smile on her face. There was no way she was going to keep this a secret from him for the next 2 weeks, not with morning sickness in full force, she’d have to tell him right away. “Ummm,” Janey said as another wave of nausea came over her and she ran out with her hand over her mouth. Chris followed her to the bathroom a bit worried about her and stood behind her and put his hand on her back until she was finished. He brushed her hair out of her face and took her face in his hands.

“Jay, are you?” Chris began as Janey’s eyes filled with tears. Oh great, I love being pregnant she thought, nausea, vomiting and emotions galore, fun times for all. The tears spilled down her face as she looked up into his brown eyes and her face told him everything that he needed to know. The tears spilling from her eyes told her that he was as excited as she was. Chris gave her a huge hug and kissed her on the head. “Oh my god. When are you due sweetie?” he asked getting all excited of the idea of another child running around the house.

“No clue. I’m guessing this happened Thanksgiving weekend. I really don’t know. I missed a cycle in December and I missed January. I guess I was just so busy with everything I didn’t even realize it. Anyway, I just found out about 10 minutes ago.”

“What made you decide to take a test today?” he asked as Janey explained the phone call from Elley and her persistence in getting her to take the pregnancy test. “Who else knows?” he asked.

“No one yet. I don’t want to say anything to Cay and Lance yet. Its their turn in the limelight of this whole pregnancy fun,” she joked, “Lets wait a week or so and do the doctor thing first. I’m going to go and put in a call to Dr. Ferguson and see if she can see me day after tomorrow while Kate is in school.”

“Can I come with you?” he asked. One of the things that Chris was looking forward to with this pregnancy was that he was going to be around for it, or at least he hoped he would be. He missed all of the doctor’s visits and everything last time because he was on tour. This time he’d make up for it.

“Of course you can sweetie,” Janey said as she finished brushing her teeth. “I would love for you to be there.” They embraced to show each other just how excited they were for their new baby that would be gracing their family.

“Today we’re talking via satellite with the guys from NSYNC!” Carson Daily started as a sea of teenagers began screaming. The guys couldn’t really hear the screaming too well but they knew what was happening in the TRL studio at that moment. “How are you guys?” he started the interview.

“Fantastic! Relaxed! Great! Super!” the voices of the guys all talking at once came over.

“You are all in Florida right now right?”

“Yeah, we’re down here just relaxing with our families for a little while.” Joey started.

“We decided that we deserved a vacation after the last tour.” Lance concluded.

“No doubt. So your new CD hits stores today. Wanna tell us about it.” He asked. The guys all began to talk about the concept behind the album and how it was something that was kind of put together at the last minute but it was an idea from the girls.

“So all of you are off the market now aren’t you?” Carson asked. The guys all looked at each other and then over at Justin who was trying best he could to avoid this question. “Chris you are married and have a little girl right?”

“Yeah, Janey is my wife and my little girl Kate is 2 ½ years old.”

“She is the cutest thing ever!” JC said as he smiled over at Chris.

“Hey there! What about Brianna?” Joey asked and put a pout on his face.

“Okay, so they are tied for cutest children in the world,” JC joked.

“How about you JC? I hear you are engaged.” Carson asked.

“Yup. We’re getting married in December. Her name is Elley.” JC talked about his fiancé with a huge smile on his face. He had never been more in love in his life.

“And Joe? You’ve got Kim still right? And Brianna?”

“You bet. Kim and I have been spending lots of time with Bri while we’ve had some time off. It’s been a lot of fun.”

“What about you Lance?” Carson asked.

“Well, as you know, I’m very happily married to Chris’ wife’s sister Caytlyn and actually we’re expecting in June.” The crowd erupted in applause for Lance and Cay.

“Fantastic. Well, that brings us to you Justin. How’s Britney?” Carson asked and Justin felt his face go from flushed to pale in 2 seconds. The guys were actually worried that he might just faint on them.

“Actually, we are no longer together,” Justin explained and a collective squeal was heard from all of the girls in the TRL audience. You could hear hearts around the world open back up with the simple idea that Justin was available once again.

“Wow, this must be real recent.” Carson said not really knowing exactly how to approach the subject.

“Yeah, but we’re still friends so all is good,” Justin lied as he looked at his bandmates for an out of this conversation.

“Well, that’s great to hear. So are we going to get to hear anything from the album today?”

“Yeah, actually you will. As many of you know each of the songs on the album is dedicated to one of the people who has made our life really special. Each of our ladies has a song as well as our parents each have songs. Well, there is one song on the CD that is dedicated to everyone who has touched our lives. We did this song at least 5 years ago and its called If Only Through Heavens Eyes.” JC explained, “This song also really goes out to all of our fans because without you we wouldn’t still be here today so here goes.” He finished as the guys all started to sing.

The girls were all watching the taping of the show at the compound and were their little audience as they were singing. “Daddy sig?” Kate asked as she watched her father and his friends singing.

“Yup, shhhh sweetie listen okay?” Jay said as she held Kate back from going up to grab her father’s leg as he was singing. The girls were the only audience that they guys had for the taping and they really didn’t want to be on TRL. That was the one place that the girls hated. Each of them had gotten their fair share of hate mail after MTV decided that it would be a great idea to just have the girls on a show. That was the first and last time that happened. The girls had walked out on stage to boos from the crowd and it was just not a good experience. The guys almost didn’t go back on the show and if it hadn’t been from a personal apology from Carson they wouldn’t have done it again.

“Kay mommy,” she said as she sat back down on her mothers lap to listen to the guys. All the girls had tears in their eyes as the guys sang the song. They always sang this song so beautifully and it was a shame that many people were hearing it for the very first time that day.

“Bwo kiss a daddy?” she asked as Kate looked up at Janey.

“Sure sweetie, you can blow daddy a kiss.” She said as Kate lifted her tiny hand to her face and kissed it and blew a kiss at her father. Chris got tears in his eyes just watching them.

“I hope you know how much you’ve changed all our lives. Someday you’ll see. If Only Through Heavens Eyes.” The guys finished the song as the TRL audience went crazy.

“Fantastic. Thanks again guys for sharing that with us today. Ladies and Gentlemen NSYNC!” and the crowd went wild.

As Carson cut to commercial he came back on the monitor to say thanks to the guys personally. “Hey guys, thanks again for everything today. Tell your ladies I said hello.”

“Why don’t you say hi yourself,” Chris said, “They are all right here!”

“Oh, why didn’t you tell me? Hey girls! Hope all is well!” Carson said. “I hate to chat and go but I have to get back to this bunch out here. Talk to you all soon! Good Luck with the baby Lance.”

“Thanks man,” Lance said as they cut the communication line between New York and Florida. “That went well,” Lance began to say as he saw Justin’s face sink to the floor. Kate had walked over to him to say hi and saw that he was sad.

“Unle juju you sad?” she asked in her small voice.

“Yeah Kate, uncle juju is sad.”

“Why sad?” she asked looking concerned.

“Auntie Britney is all gone.”

“She go bye bye?”

“Yup, she went bye bye.” He said as he picked up the little girl and carried her over to her father.

“I give hug an kiss,” Kate said as she gave Justin a kiss on the cheek and wrapped her little arms around him as best she could. Justin just held onto her and started sobbing as he handed her to Chris.

“You can hold her for a while if you want J. I know her hugs help me all the time,” he said as he smiled at his little girl and patted his best friends shoulder.

“Thanks man,” he said as he continued to hug the little girl who didn’t seem to be letting go.

“You know,” Janey said as she went up to Chris, “it amazes me how she always knows how people are feeling.” Janey said as she kissed Chris.

“Well, she gets that from you ya know?” Chris said as she looked at him questioning, “Are you kidding me? You can read each and every one of us like a book.” He said as he pulled her close. “So when do we get to tell everyone?” he whispered in her ear.

“Not yet sweetie. Lets just have it be between us for a little while okay?” she asked. With Kate everyone knew immediately and they all drove Janey crazy. She didn’t want it that way this time.

“Hey guys! So we’re celebrating the release tonight right?” Lance said as he came up to Jay and Chris who were deep in conversation.

“You bet man. Where are we partying guys?” Chris asked.

“We can all go to our place,” Joey said, “That way the kids have someplace to play and stuff.” Everyone agreed and plans were made for everyone to meet at Joey and Kim’s in three hours. That would give all the couples time to go home and relax and for the children to take naps. Everyone was brining food so that Joey and Kim wouldn’t have to worry about everything on their own.

“Hey guys!” Janey and Chris said as they got to the Fatone home.

“Hi Kimmy!” Kate said as she reached her arms out to her Auntie Kim.

“Hey cute stuff. Hey guys. Everyone’s inside already come on in.” The whole group was there and they were anxiously awaiting the news on how well the album did on its first day. Never again would they beat out No Strings Attached but they didn’t care any longer. This album was one of love and it was for their girls. They didn’t have to sell any copies if they didn’t want to. It didn’t matter. They had everything that they needed right there in that room.

The friends all ate and drank and just genuinely enjoyed their time together. Johnny called around 10:00 pm to let them all know that the first day sales were going great and they were very pleased. It even looked like they would be able to recoup the costs of changing the album at the last minute. After Johnny heard about what happened he quickly went out and took care of the CD covers being reprinted with the new dedications. It would be a tough one to do but they were able to do it and Justin couldn’t have been happier. He ended up dedicating his song to his mother who had always been such a huge supporter in his life.

“Hey guys, looks like we are out of champagne.” Joey said.

“We’ve got some over our place don’t we El?” JC said as he looked at Elley who was wrapped in his arms.

“Yeah, we do, are you okay to drive over there?” she asked. JC had drunk a few glasses of wine but was clearly fine to drive.

“Oh, I’m fine, anyone wanna come along with me?” he asked the group. Lance looked at Cay as if to ask her permission and she just nodded her head. She was exhausted after the long day. She hadn’t been drinking because of her pregnancy and also noticed that Janey wasn’t drinking either. Jay had been acting real funny the past two weeks and she was determined to find out what was going on.

“We’ll be back in a few guys,” Lance said as he kissed Cay goodbye and JC went to kiss Elley.

Everyone sat around talking for a while and didn’t really notice that JC and Lance were taking longer than usual to get back. They didn’t pay much attention to it because they figured they just stopped at the store or something to pick up some extra things. When they weren’t back after an hour they began to get worried.

“Jay, where the hell is he?” Cay asked her sister who was getting a touch agitated. Chris put his arm around Cay’s shoulder and told her that he would go and call his cell phone and see if everything was okay.

“They probably got caught up with something at the house sweetie, don’t worry, everything’s fine,” Jay said as she comforted her sister as Chris went to go and grab his cell phone out of the car where he had left it. When he got out there he noticed that the message box was lit up on the phone and listened to the messages quickly.

The first two messages were from his sisters who said that they had seen TRL and that all their friends bought the new CD and that they loved it. They really liked the new song he was singing and Chris thought to himself that it wasn’t new but it was nice to hear they liked it. The next message was his mom basically saying the same thing. The last message was the one that worried him. It had arrived just moments before and it was from Johnny saying to call him immediately.

“What the hell?” Chris said to himself as he dialed the number. “Hey Johnny, Its…” Johnny cut him right off.

“Chris we have a serious problem here. Where are you?” Johnny said frantically. It wasn’t often that Johnny Wright lost his cool and he was very close to doing just that.

“I’m at Joey’s. What the hell is going on Johnny?”

“There’s been an accident.” He began as Chris felt the breath go out of him. Chris knew that he was not always the one that people would go to in order to have someone stay calm but seeing as Lance and JC weren’t there he was the next best thing.

“Okay, where are they?” Chris asked as Johnny gave him the directions to ORMC. “We’re on our way.” Chris said as he hung up the phone and rushed inside. Janey was waiting for him in the doorway and was wondering what was going on. She could tell that Chris was pretty well shaken up. He kissed her on the head and asked where Cay and Elley were.

“Chris what’s going on?” Elley said as she came into the foyer.

“El sweetie, lets go and sit down okay.” Elley looked at him with terror in her eyes as Janey went to go and get her sister. She tried to keep her calm and asked Joey and Justin to go and find her inhaler immediately. Kim sat next to the sisters on the couch as Chris kept his arm around Elley. Once everyone was there Chris started to explain what Johnny had just told him on the phone.

“Lance and JC have been in an accident.” He began as he saw Cay start to wheeze. Justin sat next to her with his arm around her and handed her the inhaler. Elley started to cry as she listened to Chris’ words. “It wasn’t their fault or anything and they are alive right now. We have to go to the hospital. They were taken to ORMC and they are expecting us right now. El and Cay we need to call their parents.” Janey offered to call Lance’s parents and Kim offered to call JC’s. They also got a hold of Elley’s and Cay’s so that everyone would be there. Joey went and called his parents and said that they were bringing Brianna and Kate there so that the children could sleep while the parents were all at the hospital.

“Hi, my name is Janey Kirkpatrick. Some friends of ours were just brought in here from an accident that occurred out on Orange Blossom Trail?” Jay said as she went up to the triage desk and spoke with the nurse.

“Can I get the names of the patients?” she asked.

“Yes, Lance Bass and Joshua Chasez,” Janey replied calmly.

“You mean like THE Lance Bass and JC Chasez?” the nurse replied a bit star struck.

“Yeah, that’s who I mean. Their manager just called us and told us about the accident. Lance is my brother in law. Have they been transported here yet?” she asked getting a touch annoyed. She tried not to be and to put herself in the nurse’s shoes but this was a life and death thing and she wanted answers. Chris and Justin brought Cay and Elley inside and Joey and Kim quickly followed them. They all noticed a small crowd starting to form around them and that was the last thing that they wanted right now. They needed their privacy and not to have fans bothering them.

“Hey, you think we should call for security to get down here?” Kim asked Joey.

“That’s a good idea, can you give Johnny a call and see if he can get Lonnie and Mike down here. At least that way we have our own security and they know who can get in and out.”

“No problem sweetie, I love you Joe,” Kim said as she kissed Joey. After everything that had happened she was going to really pay attention to the little things with Joey. You never know when it’s going to be the last kiss that someone gives you.

Cay was obviously very shaken up with everything that was going on. Justin did the best he could to keep her calm. The last thing they needed right now was for the baby to be in any distress. It was entirely too early for her to be delivering and they wanted to keep her asthma under control.

“Cay, he’s a strong guy, he’s going to be fine, you have to believe that,” Justin said as he stroked her blonde hair.

“What if I loose him Justin? He’s my whole life. I don’t know what I’d do without him,” she said as she cried into his shoulder.

Elley was feeling the same way but was in such shock she couldn’t even cry. Chris sat with his arm around their friend trying to reassure her that JC was going to be okay. “Just remember how much he loves you girl,” Chris said as he hugged her.

“I should never have let him go. I should have gone with him or we should have done without the champagne.” Elley tried to get the words out but it was getting more and more difficult.

“Elley sweetie,” Janey said as she sat between Elley and Caytlyn, “He’s going to be fine. It’s no one’s fault. It happened and there’s nothing we can do now but pray.” She said as she rubbed the backs of both girls.

“Janey Kirkpatrick,” The doctor said.

“Yes, I’m Janey, do you have any news?” she said as Cay, Elley, Justin and Chris followed up to the door that led back to the ER rooms.

“Well, your friends were all in a serious accident tonight. The guys were in an accident due to a drunk driver,” He began as Elley’s grip on Jay and Chris got tighter and Cay clung to Justin for life. “The good news is that their injuries are not fatal and I do believe that they will make a full recovery. Also, this was not their fault at all. The driver of the other car was drunk and hit the gentlemen. They are very lucky. If they hadn’t been wearing their seat belts I’m not really sure that there would have been anything that we could do. They both sustained rather serious injuries however. I understand that Mr. Bass is married?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Cay replied, as she came out from Justin’s embrace, “I’m his wife Cay.”

“I’m going to bring you back to see your husband. May I ask how far along you are?” he asked looking at her stomach.

“Five and a half months,” she replied holding her stomach as to say to her child that she was right there with them at that moment.

“Congratulations. I also understand that Mr. Chasez is engaged correct?”

“Yeah, I’m Elley, his fiancé,” she replied.

“Well, we’ll bring you back first to see Joshua. If you each want to bring someone with you then that is fine.”

Cay looked at her sister and then at Justin. She knew that Justin would want to see Lance and Janey knew that she just needed a warm shoulder at that point and it didn’t matter if it was her sister’s or if it was Justin’s. “Jay do you mind if Justin comes in with me?” she asked her sister.

“Not at all sweetie, you go right ahead,” she said as she gave her sister a hug. “I’m right here for you okay?” Cay nodded and Justin took her hand to bring her in to see Justin.

“Jay, will you come in there with me?” Elley asked her friend.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Yeah, I know that Josh will want to see you too.” Elley said as she took Janey’s hand.

“You got it sweetie,” Jay said as Chris gave the girls both a quick hug and went out to get any more information than he could and to make sure that the security was firmly in place outside of the hospital.

“Miss…” the doctor started as he turned to Elley.

“Its Elley, please,” she said.

“Okay, Elley, let me tell you about Josh’s injuries before we go in there. He suffered some pretty serious head trauma. Right now he is unconscious but has been responding to stimuli so that’s a very good thing. He has some pretty bad cuts on his face from the glass shattering and his arm is broken in 2 places.” He went over all of Josh’s injuries and seeing as Elley knew about automobile injuries from her time working at home, she knew that these weren’t as bad as they could possibly be. Things could be a lot worse and she was relieved at these minor injuries. “Are you ready to go in?” he asked as they stood outside the door. Elley turned to Jay and nodded her head and the two went into the small hospital room.

“Oh my god,” Elley said as she felt herself get light headed. Janey squeezed her hand to let her know that she was there with her. JC was lying flat on the bed completely unconscious. His cuts were all over his face and he had multiple stitches right near his eye. He looked so lifeless and Elley started to cry. Janey tried to stay strong for her friend but she felt the tears coming down her face as well. Elley went up to JC and took his hand in hers and started to talk to him.

“Baby, you can’t do this to me. I just bought my wedding gown. We have to get through this JC. I love you so much. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” JC squeezed Elley’s hand as she spoke to him and she cried harder. She knew that he could hear her and was responding well to her. These were all good signs. She continued to talk to him and then stepped back so that Janey could talk to her friend.

“Hey sexy. Don’t you worry about Elley, Chris and I are taking good care of her. Kate’s going to miss playing with you so you need to come back to us sweetie. We know you can pull through this. And hey, just think, now Johnny is going to have to give you all the time off you want! You can just enjoy your time with Elley. She loves you so much JC and so do the rest of us.” Janey said, as she was getting teary.

“You want to stay with him?” Janey asked Elley.

“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere until I see those eyes of his again.” Elley said as she pulled a chair next to the bed and held his hand.

“Okay, You going to be okay for a minute, I know that Chris, Joey and Kim are going to want to come in and see him.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Thank you Jay.” Elley said as she hugged her friend.

“That’s what friends are for right?” she smiled and went out to go and get the other guys and give them an update on JC. “How’s Lance doing?” she asked Chris.

“He’s not doing so good sweetie. He suffered more injuries than JC apparently and has some pretty serious internal bleeding. They think they have it pretty much under control right now but he is unconscious and really isn’t responding well to any of the stimuli.” Chris said as he held Janey close. Jay knew this was going to be really rough for Cay. She just wanted to see Lance make it. Cay loved him so much.

“Where’s Cay?” she asked.

“Still in with him right now and so is Justin. I’m not so sure they will let anyone else in there.” Chris said with tears in his eyes. “Jay, what are we going to do?” he asked her.

“We’re going to stay strong for everyone right guys?” she said as she turned to Joey and Kim who were wrapped in each others arms just trying to keep each other calm.

“You got it girl,” Joey said as he stood up with Kim and they went to hug Janey and Chris. At the very least they had each other.

**************************************************************************************************

“Lance baby, its me, Cay. Happy Valentines Day honey, I love you. Come on honey, you have to wake up in there. Let us know that you are still with us. The baby was kicking yesterday Lance. You would have gotten to feel your baby for the first time. He misses you playing him your music and singing to him. Don’t worry about me sweetie because Jay and Chris and everyone else is taking really good care of me. Mom and John came down today and so did your parents. They all want to see those beautiful green eyes of yours again sweetie. Please open them up. We miss you so much.” Cay concluded through her tears. She had been at the hospital non-stop since the accident a week earlier. Now it was Valentines Day and everyone was still there taking shifts at the hospital. JC had been discharged after spending only 2 days in the hospital. He was doing great. Still very tired and achy and his arm would be in a cast for a while but he was pretty much all in one piece.

Lance on the other hand was a different story. His injuries were pretty severe. They controlled the internal bleeding, which they found was coming from his spleen almost immediately. He was still unconscious but he was starting to come around. The doctors still had a lot of hope with him because he had been improving daily. He was beginning to respond to different peoples voices and would squeeze their hands when they were near. His leg was in a cast and would be for several weeks after breaking it and they had to put in pins to fix it. Everyone hoped he would still be able to dance as soon as this was all over.

Johnny arrived at the hospital the night of the accident and informed the group that the next day he was putting into motion the idea that the guys would be taking the next year off. After all that they had been through they were going to need it. Everyone was very appreciative of all that Johnny was doing. He also took care of putting out the press release about the accident and made sure that everyone knew that it wasn’t the fault of the two singers and rather the other driver. The last thing that the guys needed was bad press.

“Hey sweetie,” Jay said from the door of Lance’s room. “How’s my brother doing today?” she asked her sister.

“He’s doing okay. He’s responding better today than he has all week. God Jay, what am I going to do?” Cay asked as she started crying.

“Cay honey, he’s going to be fine. He’s going to wake up soon and you’ll be able to see those green eyes of his that made you fall in love with him and he’s going to sing you to sleep and the two of you are going to have the most beautiful baby in the world.” Jay said in a reassuring tone of voice as she held her sister close. “And speaking of beautiful children, I do believe there is a little one outside who would like to see you.” Jay said to her sister who looked up at her.

“You brought Kate here?” Cay asked.

“Well, she’s been asking for you all week as well as for Lance. I spoke with the doctor yesterday and seeing as he just looks like he’s sleeping they felt it would be okay to bring her in. They also felt that it might help a little,” Janey shrugged. She wasn’t so sure this was the best idea but seeing as Lance didn’t have any tubes coming out of him with the exception of an IV and a subtle breathing tube coming from his nose she didn’t think it would really freak Kate out too much. “Mom and John and Diane and Jim are out in the lobby waiting to see you. Go take a break sweetie, I’ll stay here with him for a few minutes okay?” she said as she gave her sister a hug and a slight push out the door.

Cay reluctantly went out into the waiting area where the group had been setting up a vigil since the night of the accident. JC came over and gave her a hug and she was happy to see that he was up and around. “Hey Mom,” Cay said to her mother sounding more exhausted than she had in ages.

“Hey sweetie, how’s he doing?” she asked as she hugged her daughter.

“Well, he’s coming around. He hasn’t opened his eyes yet but the response time is getting better every day. They really think he might come out of this soon. I just hope so. He’s breathing on his own and his heart rate is really good. All good signs,” Cay said trying to sound convincing. She gave hugs to Lance’s parents and to her stepfather when she heard some giggles coming from down the hall.

“That laugh can only belong to one person,” Cay’s mom said as Chris came around the corner with Kate on his shoulders. “Christopher what are you doing to my granddaughter?” she asked joking with him.

“Hey mom, how are you guys today?” he said as he took Kate off of his shoulders to hand her to his mother in law.

“We’re okay, Lance is doing better.” She replied looking over at Cay who was wrapped in the arms of her stepfather.

“Aunnie Cay!!!!!!” Kate squealed seeing her aunt and reaching out for her.

“Hey pumpkin, how are you?”

“I good, daddy ride on a soulder.”

“Daddy gave you a ride on his shoulders huh?”

“Yup! An I ceem.”

“He gave you ice cream?” the girl’s mother looked at Chris with a stern look. “What are you doing giving her ice cream at 10:00 am. Jay is going to get you for this one.”

“Leave him alone Kathryn,” John, the girls step father said to his wife, “You’d eat Ice Cream 24/7 if we let you.” They joked.

“Yeah you’re right.”

“Where Laaaaaaaannnce?” Kate asked as Cay’s eyes filled with tears.

“Uncle Lance is sleeping honey,” she explained.

“SHHHHHH! I quiet?” she asked.

“Yup you have to be quiet so he gets lots of rest. Do you wanna go and see him?” she asked Kate as her mom and stepfather looked on.

“Are you sure about this?” the girls’ mom asked Chris.

“Yeah, the doctor said it might be good for him to hear her voice. It’s a familiar voice to him so maybe it might help. We’re all willing to try anything at this point. Besides, he really does just look like he’s sleeping. He didn’t have any stitches in his face or anything and she won’t be able to see the cast on his leg.”

“I guess you are right.” She said and turned to Cay. “Do you want me to come in with you?” she asked.

“Nah, Jay’s in there right now. Chris you might want to come though so that if she gets cranky you can take her out.”

“Good idea,” he said as he took Cay’s hand and they headed into Lance’s room. Janey was sitting by his bed holding his hand and talking to him when they all came in.

“Hey sweetie,” she said as the group entered the room.

“Hey there,” Chris replied as he went up to give Jay a hug and a kiss.

“Yeah, see, I was talking about Kate. How are you honey?”

“I good. Unle Laaaaannnnce seepin?” she asked.

“Yup, Uncle Lance is sleeping. You wanna say hi?” Jay said as she held her daughter.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiii Laaaannnce.” She said and laughed as Chris tickled her sides. “I give hug an a kiss?” she asked. Cay, Jay and Chris all looked at each other.

“It couldn’t hurt huh?” Jay asked Cay and Chris.

“Nah, let her go ahead.” Cay said. “You wanna give Uncle Lance a hug and a kiss?” Cay said as she took Kate from Jay’s arms.

“Yeah, I give hug an a kiss.” She said as she bent down to kiss Lance’s face and put her arms around him as best she could. As Cay was lifting her up Lance started to stir a bit. Chris immediately rang for the nurse and within minutes the nurse was by his side. Jay brought Kate out of the room as everyone watched the nurses rushing to Lance’s room.

“I give Unle Laaaaannnnce hug an a kiss!” Kate squealed as they came out of the room. Jay handed Kate to her mother and had tears in her eyes. She went up to Dianne and Jim and told them what had happened.

“I think he may be back with us. You might want to go down there.” She said as her parents hugged her and Kate. Joey and Kim came over from the sofa where they were sitting and JC and Elley headed straight down to the room.

“Where am I?” Lance asked as he woke from his unconscious state. Chris held onto Cay so as to make sure she didn’t pass out as Dianne and Jim rushed into the room with Elley and JC close behind.

“Oh my god Lance!” Cay said as she went over to hug him. “God baby, I’ve missed you so much.” She said through her tears. Janey came into the room with Joey and Kim and went straight over to Chris. The nurses tried to get them to limit the number of people in the room but realized that was a lost cause. They had checked all of Lance’s vital signs and it was true, he was back and everything looked really good.

“What happened?” Lance asked. He had lost all memory of the accident and realized that he had just lost a week of his life. “All I remember is just now, someone kissed me and I swear I heard Kate’s giggle.” He said as Chris and Janey looked at each other and smiled.

“We were in a car accident man,” JC started as Lance looked over and saw the cast on JC’s arm and all of the stitches in his face. They would be coming out within the next few days.

“Oh my god? What happened? Was it our fault?” Lance started to rattle off questions and tried to sit up. Elley put her hand on his shoulder so that he’d lie back down.

“You know what, we don’t have to worry about any of it any longer. But no Lance, it wasn’t your guys’ fault. It was a drunk driver.” Elley explained, “But I don’t want to see you getting yourself worked up right now. You need your rest.” She said letting the nurse in her take over.

“Why don’t we leave these guys alone huh?” Jay said as she looked at her friends. “We’re glad to have you back Lance.” Jay said as she moved his foot and headed out the door behind their friends.

“Lance, I’ve missed you so much baby,” Cay said as soon as everyone left the room. “I almost lost you. I don’t know what I’d ever do without you.” Cay started crying as Lance lifted his hand to her face.

“Sweetie, don’t cry. I’m here and I’m never going to go away. I love you so much. How’s the baby doing?” he asked.

“It moved the other day. I wanted you to feel it so bad. She’s been moving around a lot lately you wanna feel?” she asked as he nodded and she took his hand and placed it on her stomach. The baby was kicking a lot lately and Lance was able to feel his child move inside of his wife.

“I love you Cay and I’ll never leave you. I promise.” He said.

“I love you too Lance,” she said and bent over to give him a kiss.

Lance was discharged from the hospital three days later after the doctors made sure that all of his injuries were healing properly. He was in fantastic spirits the entire time, which was really going to help in his recovery. He’d be in a full cast for his leg for the next several weeks and after that he’d have rehab. Ever the businessman, he was first concerned about how the album did. When the guys told him that it was selling rapidly and that it had been number one ever since its release he was thrilled. Nothing pleased him more though, than the moments that he was able to spend with Cay. They were anxiously awaiting the birth of their child and spent endless hours talking about their future. Kate spent lots of time with Cay and Lance in the next few days, as she seemed to brighten the room anytime that she came near it. Cay and Lance couldn’t have been happier that they had brought Kate to the hospital that day. They truly believed that it was Kate’s laughter and joy that brought Lance back.

**************************************************************************************************

Johnny got all of the guys and their partners together to discuss the next year with everyone. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see all of you together.” Johnny started to say as everyone sat happily together at the compound. JC and Lance were both out of their casts as it was several months after the accident and they were both healing very well. JC and Elley, although they were inseparable before, became even more so after the accident. They were getting really excited for their wedding, which was only 6 months away.

Janey and Chris announced their news of the new baby to everyone shortly after Lance got home from the hospital. They knew that Janey was going to start showing soon especially seeing, as she was pregnant with twins. They were happy as always and they were beginning to prepare Kate for becoming a big sister. Kate was thrilled and would tell everyone that mommy had 2 babies in her belly. Janey had been really sick right away but was starting to feel a little better.

Joey and Kim had decided to file for custody of Brianna. Kelly just wasn’t paying attention to Brianna any longer as she was all wrapped up in her new life. Instead of the whole court proceedings, Kelly just signed over custody to Joey while she would still have visitation rights. Joey and Kim were thrilled and Joey soon popped the question to Kim and they were trying to decide when they were going to get married.

Justin was getting much better since the break up with Britney. Chele had come down to visit the girls and to get fitted for her gown and she and Justin spent lots of time together. It was a long distance relationship but it was progressing well and the other girls couldn’t have been happier. It was going to be hard for Justin to give his heart away again, but for the time being he was happy. He spent lots of time with Chris and Jay and they were only too happy to open their house to their friend.

Lance and Cay were a completely different story. They were more in love every day and were anxiously awaiting the birth of their child. They spent many hours preparing the nursery together and just spent time savoring the love they had for each other. The realization that Lance was almost not a part of her life was rough on Cay. Her doctor was getting a little nervous about her pregnancy and Lance assured Dr. Smith that he was taking good care of Cay.

“So what are the plans Johnny?” Chris asked.

“Well, with the events of the past few months we as a management team have come to a decision. You guys all need some time off to be normal for a while and to get your lives in order. You’ve got new babies coming, you’ve got weddings to plan for and you’ve got wounds that need to heal.”

“So how long are we talking about here?” JC asked.

“A year.” Johnny answered, as everyone looked astonished. This would be the longest period of time that the guys had ever been off. It was a very much-deserved time off. “You may have a couple of small appearances in there and I know that you will all be working on new music whether I tell you to or not,” Justin and JC looked at each other an smiled, “but for all intents and purposes you are all off until next February.” The group all let out a collective sigh knowing that they’d all be able to get their lives in order in that period of time.

“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” Cay said as she got up.

“You okay baby?” Lance asked as he helped Cay up from the floor where she was sitting between his legs.

“Yeah, I’m fine sweetie,” she said although she wasn’t sounding at all convincing. Elley, Jay and Kim all looked at each other and knew exactly what was going on and followed close behind Cay to the bathroom.

“Elley! Jay! Can you come in here a sec?” Cay cried from the door. “Umm, I think we have to go.” She said as she looked down. Her water had broken and it indeed was time to get her to the hospital.

“Have you been having any contractions at all?” Elley asked.

“Actually yeah, I’ve been timing them through the meeting and they are 20 minutes apart.” She replied as Kim left the room to go and tell the guys that they’d all have to go and get ready.

“Are you serious?” Lance asked as he rushed to Cay’s side. “Sweetie are you okay?”

“She’s fine Lance, she’s just in labor,” Janey smiled at her brother, “Do you have her bag packed?” she asked.

“Yup, I already put it in the car.” Cay said.

“Always prepared huh?” Janey joked. “Well, lets get out of here then. Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital here we come!” The group all followed out the door and headed off to the hospital to await the birth of the newest member of the NSYNC family.

Jay and Chris stopped by Kate’s school on the way to the hospital and picked up Kate and told her what was going on. “Aunnie Cay have baby?” she asked.

“You got it sweetie, Auntie Cay is going to have a baby.”

“Baby in a belly? Like Mommy?” she asked from the backseat of the car.

“Just like mommy. So we’re going to go and see your new cousin.” Chris said as they drove to the hospital together. Chris and Jay held hands and remembered back to the day that Kate was born and how exciting it was for them.

By the time they arrived everyone was already there and Cay and Lance were off in the delivery room. Cay’s labor progressed very rapidly but no one was concerned at all. She was very healthy and all signs were pointing towards her having the baby naturally just as they wanted.

“Yeah mom, we’re at the hospital right now,” Janey said into the phone, “When are you coming down? You’ll be here tonight. No problem, either Chris or I will be there to get you. Don’t worry I’ll tell her. We all love you too. Here, everyone say hi to Grandma Katie!”

“HI GRANDMA KATIE!!!!” they all yelled into the phone. “Did you hear that?” Jay asked. “Okay mom I’ll see you tonight then mom. I love you. Bye!’ she said as she hung up the phone.

“You know, they are going to get to know us all a little too well here at this place.” Jay said to Chris. They knew that in a few short months they’d be back again having yet another child. He put his arms around her and held her close and looked around at all of their friends sitting happily together. Kate was curled up in Elley’s lap and JC was holding Elley close. Joey was holding onto Kim who was holding Brianna after taking her out of school as well. Everyone wanted to be together for this birth. Lonnie and Mike were stationed outside of the private waiting area that they were given so that they could have some privacy. They might be taking a year off but they still had fans that wanted to see them.

“Hey guys,” Lance said as he came out of the delivery room. Everyone jumped up to see him as he spoke softly and held his arms out for everyone to see. “I’d like to introduce you all to my beautiful daughter. Say hello to Stephanie Marie Bass.” He said as he looked down at his daughter. She had his green eyes and his mother’s blonde hair and was absolutely beautiful. Everyone congratulated Lance and asked about Cay.

“How’s my sister doing?” Jay asked concerned.

“She’s fantastic and she wanted you to be the first to hold her,” Lance said as he handed the baby to Janey. “I’d like you to meet your Auntie Janey and Uncle Chris. This is your cousin Kate. This is your Uncle JC and your Aunt Elley. And over there is your Uncle Justin and your Aunt Kim and Uncle Joey. And of course your other cousin Brianna. You have a very special family little one,” Lance said as he and Jay brought the baby over for everyone to see. Janey cooed at the baby.

“I see a baby?” Kate asked as she tugged on Janey’s leg.

“You bet sweetie. This is your cousin Stephanie.”

“Hi Seffie!” Kate said, “I give a kiss?” she asked as she looked at the baby and then up at her parents who nodded at her. Kate bent down and gave the baby a kiss on the head. Chris and Janey looked around the room at their friends who all had tears in their eyes. The group all took turns holding the baby and making their own personal introductions and then went in to visit with Cay.

Cay looked beautiful. She was completely relaxed and was in not a lot of pain. She was so happy to have her baby girl and her husband by her side. Cay and Lance would make great parents and now that they were all together they planned to stay like that for a long time. The friends all waved goodbye to the new parents so that they could have some time alone with their new daughter.

“I love you Lance,” Cay said as she kissed him on the head.

“I love you more,” Lance said as he kissed his wife. “And I think I love you even more,” he said as he kissed the top of Stephanie’s head. They all lay in bed together with the baby in between them and all fell asleep.

Till Death Do Us Part

Before they knew it, the end of July was upon them and everyone was gearing up for a big party at the Kirkpatrick’s. Cay, Lance and Stephanie were settled nicely in their home and Stephanie was getting bigger every day. She was just over a month old and was a very happy baby. After trips up to Connecticut and to Mississippi to visit all the grandparents Cay and Lance were back down in Orlando. Janey was doing great with her pregnancy and was feeling fine. The doctors were a bit concerned about her blood pressure and they were keeping a close eye on it but as far as it looked, all was going well and they were ready to have 2 happy and healthy babies. Chris and Jay opted once again to not find out the sex of the children but it was killing them to not know. They had four names all picked out just in case so they were ready to go.

Chris was the best husband in the world to Janey, making sure that she had everything that she needed and he was always prepared to go to the hospital at a moment’s notice. The doctors said that she might have the babies a little early but they weren’t ruling out the fact that Jay would carry the babies to term. She was feeling great and was up and around as much as she could be although she felt like she was the size of a house. Being that way in the middle of summer in Florida was not the most fun so Chris and Kate tried their best to keep Janey as entertained as possible so that she wouldn’t get too crabby.

“So what can we bring for the party?” Elley asked as she and Jay were talking on the phone. The friends had decided to have a big party to celebrate the fact that they had all been together for 5 years. It seemed like only yesterday that they had all just met in Florida for that incredible weekend. No one would have ever guessed that here they would all stand together at this point, five years later, all friends, some of them married, and children running around the house.

“Just bring yourselves, I’ve got everything under control,” Janey said.

“Yeah, okay, sure, you are 8 ½ months pregnant with twins and I’m going to let you plan this entire party. I don’t think so. I’ll bring salad and some kind of desert.” Elley said arguing with Janey.

“Fine, fine, you bring that. What time are you guys coming over?” she asked.

“We’ll be there in an hour or so. JC is down in the studio finishing up something. Not quite sure what he’s doing. He locked himself in there a few hours ago and hasn’t emerged since. I told him that we were going to come over to your place so he had to finish.”

“Okay, sounds good, I’m going to go and get Kate up from her nap so she’s ready for all of you to get here. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye!”

“Bye,” Janey said as she hung up the phone. She headed up to Kate’s room and found that Chris was already up there with her getting her up from her nap. “Hey you two,” Janey said as she came into the room.

“Hi mommy!” Kate said as she saw Janey in the doorway, “No daddy, I pick out my own clothes!” she said with a stern voice to her father.

“Okay, you got it, you pick out your own clothes.” Chris said as he watched Kate pick out her outfit. “She certainly is getting independent isn’t she?” Chris said as he went over to Janey to give her a hug.

“No kidding huh?”

“Mommy, I pretty?” she asked as she finished getting dressed, “I pretty for Unle Juju?” Kate was certainly in love with her Uncle Justin.

“Oh you sure are. Let’s go downstairs everyone is going to be here soon,” she said as she went to pick up the little girl to bring her downstairs.

“Kay, who coming?” she asked.

“Lets see, Auntie Elley, Uncle JC, Auntie Kimmy and Uncle Joey, Brianna, Auntie Cay and Uncle Justin and your cousin Steffie too.”

“Unle Juju comin mommy?” she asked.

“You bet, he’ll be here too but we have to go and get everything ready downstairs.”

“I help?” she asked.

“Sure you can help. Your daddy can help too,” Janey said as she looked back to see where Chris had gone. He had mysteriously disappeared after leaving Kate’s room. The two girls went downstairs and started up the grill and took out things for the cookout.

Everyone started to arrive at the house and the place was filled with music and laughter as the children were running around chasing their parents. After a while they all sat down to have dinner together. As they all sat down they decided to start making toasts.

“I think I want to go first,” Joey said as he stood up. He took Kim’s hand in his and turned to speak to her. “First I want to toast to all of you. You are the best of friends and are all the most amazing family I could ever have asked for. I want you all to be the first to know this incredible news that we found out last week. Kimmy and I are going to have a baby!” Everyone stood up to congratulate the happy couple. They had been trying for so long to get pregnant and now they finally were.

“How far along are you?” Elley asked as she went up to Kim to congratulate her.

“Ummmm, yeah, I’m 8 weeks,” she replied with a sheepish grin on her face.

“Hold on a sec, what did I tell you girls! None of you were allowed to be pregnant for my wedding!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know, its not like we planned it like this. But I am not due until February so there’s no way that I’ll be having this baby on your wedding day. I promise! However, we might have to get the gown adjusted a bit,” she said as she hugged her friend. Although Elley was not pleased that her friend was going to be pregnant for her wedding but she was thrilled for Kim and Joey.

“Well, hold on you guys, I’ve got more news for all of you!” Joey said as he interrupted everyone going around talking. He went up to Kim and took her hand, “Kim, I have never in my life met anyone like you. When I met you five years ago today I knew that I had met one of the most amazing people in the world. Through the past few years we have grown so close and now I have never been happier than knowing that you will be the mother of my child. You have taken Brianna into your life and loved her like you were her own mother. Kim, there is no one in the world that I would rather spend the rest of my life with,” Joey got down on one knee and took her hand in his as he pulled out a small blue box, “Kim, I wanted all of our friends to be here when I asked you this because you are becoming a part of their family as much as you will become a part of mine. Kim, will you marry me?” he asked as he opened the box to show her the engagement ring.

Kim had tears in her eyes and everyone in the room was crying. “Joey, I’ve waited for this moment all my life. Yes, I’ll marry you.” She said as she jumped into Joey’s arms. Everyone was just so excited for the happy couple. It seemed that life had finally come full circle in the group of friends. They were all happy and were loving life.

“Well girls, we actually have something that we’d like to give all of you,” JC said as he stood up and took Elley’s hand in his. “You girls have all really changed our lives in the past five years. Our lives would have all been so different if it had not been for all of you coming into our lives.”

“You know that we all say everything best when we sing,” Justin continued.

“So we wanted to sing something for all of you that really shows you how we all feel,” Chris continued. JC went to turn on the recording that he had made earlier in the day and the girls had all been seated together. Cay, Janey and Kim all held their daughters in their arms as the guys stood in front of them and began to sing.

I never thought you were a fair-weather friend

You never let me down you’re true to the end

For in the darkest hour when all was lost

Somehow you left the light on

You faced the wrong and showed the world a thing or two

Stood up for me, for you

And you should know

Some say it wasn’t worth the things we went through

I say it ain’t worth loosing you

I hope you know how much you’ve changed all our lives

Someday you’ll see

If only through heavens eyes

I still remember the things that you said

I keep your words alive I could never forget

Cause in the final hour you made me proud

So proud that I could know you

You told the world its time that they believed in you

You stood for right and truth

And You should know

Some say it wasn’t worth the things we went through

I say it ain’t worth loosing you

I hope you know how much you’ve changed all our lives

Somday you’ll see

If only through heavens eyes

Only through heavens eyes

And so we can’t forget

We’ve got to keep remembering them all

The ones who took the fall

They did it for us all

And we should learn from it

Stand up if you believe in it

You’ve got to face the world

Be Strong

Some say it wasn’t worth the things we went through

I say it ain’t worth loosing you

I hope you know how much you’ve changed all our lives

Someday you’ll see

If only through heavens eyes

By the end of the song each of the guys was with their wife or fiancé with the exception of Justin who Kate seemed to find while he was singing. He held Kate in his arms and sang the rest of the song to her as Chris sang to Janey. The girls were all smiles as they danced with their husbands and fiancés and they were all just as happy as they could be. After a few more hours of sitting around and reminiscing together everyone began to head their own way home. Kate was sound asleep on the couch and Janey and Chris carried her up to her bedroom together.

“Thank you for a wonderful night tonight sweetie. Can you believe that we’ve been together for five years?” Janey asked Chris as they tucked Kate in for bed.

“First, you are so welcome. You deserve to be able to enjoy time with your friends and family. And second, I can’t believe you’ve put up with me for this long.” Chris said as they went into their bedroom. He came up behind her and put his arms around her as he began to hum in her ear. He began singing to her the first song that he ever sang to her and Janey got tears in her eyes. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, But girl it seems you’ve touched my life. You’re in my dreams, you’re in my heart, I’m by myself when we’re apart. Something strange has come over me, a raging wind across my seas, and girl you know that your eyes are to blame. And what am I supposed to do, if I can’t get over you, and come to find that you don’t feel the same. Cause I’ve fallen, fallen, girl I’ve fallen for you. And I pray you’re falling too. I’ve been falling falling, ever since the moment I laid eyes on you.” They danced together like it was their first time ever. Chris held Janey closed and kissed every inch of her face as the two lay down in bed together. They snuggled close together and fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms.

“Chris, Chris honey wake up,” Janey said as she began to feel sharp shooting pains in her back. They had only been asleep for a few hours since their friends had all left the house and she didn’t want to get up yet. Janey hadn’t been having any contractions at all during the day although they knew she was due in a week. It looked like it was just about time for them to have the babies.

“What, what is it sweetie, are you okay?” he asked as he woke from a deep sleep.

“Chris, my back, its killing me,” Janey said as she tried to get up. Chris helped her up so that she was standing when she fell to the floor. He helped her back onto the bed went to go and leave the room. “I’m calling Elley,” he said as he ran to get the phone. Chris felt bad waking up Elley and JC but he also knew that she’d know exactly what to do. “Okay, she said we need to get you to the hospital and now. Let’s go.” Chris said as he helped her up off the bed and helped to get her dressed. He went down the hall and took Kate carefully from her bed and wrapped her in a blanket so that she might still sleep. Elley and JC were meeting them at the hospital and they were going to take care of Kate while Janey and Chris were off getting her all taken care of.

It was three am when Janey, Chris and Kate arrived at the hospital. Elley, JC, Joey, Kim and Justin were already there waiting when the arrived. Elley had called Cay and Lance and they were on their way with their sleeping child with them in their arms.

“Mommy havin babies?” Kate asked Elley.

“Yup, you’re momma is going to have the babies.”

“I be a big sister,” Kate said proudly as she put her head on Elley’s shoulder. The little girl was still exhausted and really should have still been asleep but there was no where else that Chris and Jay wanted her to be than right with them at that moment.

“You sure are cutie,” Justin said as he went and sat next to Elley. Justin had adjusted well to being back in single life after being pretty depressed about Britney. He and Chele were dating on and off and she would come down to visit whenever she could. Justin had wanted her there for the party that they had the previous night but unfortunately she was unable to come down.

“You an Uncle?” she asked Justin.

“I’m already an uncle silly,” he said to Kate.

“I not silly, you silly,” she said.

“No you’re silly,” he argued.

“Auntie Elley silly,” she giggled.

“Now don’t get me in the middle of this!” Elley said, “I think both of you are silly, and I think you little miss needs a nap.”

“I not tired,” Kate said very matter of factly.

“Oh really,” JC said as Kate let out a huge yawn, “Well, I’m going to take a nap, you wanna take a nap with me?” he asked.

“Okay,” Kate said softly as JC picked her up and held her close. Within a few minutes she was sound asleep in JC’s arms.

“Hey guys,” Chris said as he came out of the examining room where Janey was. He had a very sad look on his face and it just didn’t’ look like the face of a person who was about to have two new children to bless his life.

“Chris, what’s going on?” Justin asked as they saw several doctors and nurses rush into the room. Elley, Cay and Kim all stood up looking very nervous.

“Jay’s not doing so well guys. They said that her blood pressure has shot up and they are worried. She’s been bleeding a lot and they are probably going to have to do a c-section on her.”

“Chris, she’s going to be fine,” Justin, said as he went up to his friend, “She’s been through so much and she’ll get through this too. Go in there and take care of her. We’re all right here for you.”

“Yeah, I want to see my new nieces or nephews,” Lance said as he went up and stood next to Chris with his daughter in his arms. He knew how hard this must be for Chris after going through Cay’s pregnancy. Chris tried to smile at his friends and saw his daughter curled up in JC’s lap. He went over and gave her a kiss and headed back into the examining room.

Everyone waited nervously as the doctors went in and out of the room and Chris wasn’t coming back out. After what seemed like hours Chris emerged from the room with two bundles of joy wrapped and in his arms. Everyone stood up and went right over to him. Kate was wide-awake and went right over to her father.

“Is a baby?” she asked her father.

“Yeah it is Kate. These are your new sisters Kimberly Michele and Rebecca Danielle.” Chris said as he bent down to show Kate the new babies. Everyone gathered around and looked at the two precious angels. The girls all looked at each other and smiled because they realized that they had all just had the two children named after them.

“My sisters?” she asked as Elley held her.

“Yup,” Elley said choking back the tears, “Those are your sisters sweetie.”

“I give hug an a kiss to sisters.” She said as she bent down to kiss the two babies. “Where mommy?” she asked Chris.

“Katie, mommy has to stay inside the room for a little bit before she comes and sees you okay?” he tried to explain as the friends looked on. Chris looked to Elley and Cay as if to ask them to come and take the babies while he talked to Kate. This was going to be tough on him and he wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to say it to her. Justin came up behind Chris and held his shoulder as he talked to the little girl and JC came over and sat next to Kate. “Kate sweetie, mommy has an owie and needs to stay inside for a little bit okay?” he asked her hoping that she would understand.

“I go kiss an owie.” She said as she got up out of JC’s lap to go to the door. JC ran after her and scooped her up in his arms.

“No way little one, you need to stay out here with all of your aunts and uncles okay?” he asked. “You wanna go and get some breakfast?” he asked her knowing that he’d be able to get her out of the room for a little bit so that everyone could go in and see Janey.

“Yeah, I go wif you Unle JC.” She said and took his hand. He nodded to the rest of the group and took Kate down to the cafeteria to get some food while everyone else went over to Chris. They handed the babies off to the nurse and all sat down by his side.

“Chris man, what’s going on? Where’s Jay?” Justin asked as Chris started crying. Everyone feared the absolute worst had happened while Janey was in labor. They had been in there for so long and had seen a number of doctors come and go with very serious looks on their faces. Justin held Elley close as Lance did the same for Cay and Joey for Kim. The girls were all in tears as the looked at Chris.

“They just took her upstairs to ICU. She had a lot of problems having the girls. Her body had some type of reaction to the anesthesia that they used. They were able to take the girls just fine and they are both perfectly healthy but Jay stopped breathing and she had a seizure while they had her on the operating table. To top that off, she lost a lot of blood while having the girls. She started hemorrhaging almost immediately after and they are really concerned about the amount of blood loss that she had. They have her upstairs right now and they really don’t know what is going to happen.” Chris said through his tears. Cay lost all color in her face and began to wheeze as they stood and listened to Chris talk. Lance went and grabbed her inhaler and sat her down on the couch while Elley held onto Stephanie.

“Can we see her?” Elley asked.

“Yeah, we can all go up there but only a few people at a time are allowed in with her.” He said as everyone began to pick up their things and head up to the ICU unit where Jay was. His friends were basically holding up Chris, as he just couldn’t find the strength to walk up the stairs. All that went through his mind was the possibility of loosing Janey.

The group of friends all got upstairs and two at a time went into see Janey. Chris sat in the waiting area and Elley came up beside him. “El, what am I going to do? I can’t loose her,” he said trying to stay strong.

“Chris, she’s going to be okay. This happens. People come out of this and are perfectly fine and healthy. Look at Jay’s mom. This exact same thing happened to her when she had Caytlyn and she was fine. You guys are going to be great and you’re going to go home with three beautiful daughters who their Auntie Elley is going to spoil rotten.” She said trying to joke with Chris. “And if anything at all happens to her, you know that you have all of us here to help you. No matter what Chris. But I know that she’s going to be just fine.”

“Okay, so she’s going to be fine, but how the hell am I going to tell Kate? She wants to see her mother and I can’t even think for a second of how I’m going to explain the fact that her mother is lying in there with tubes coming out of her body and doesn’t even look like herself?” Chris said getting angry.

“Chris, you just tell her that mommy needs lots of rest and that she’ll get to see her soon,” Justin said as he came up and sat next to them.

“Exactly, and you keep her going on her daily routine. She has school today right?” Elley asked.

“Yeah, its Monday so she has school today.”

“Okay fine, I’ll bring her home and get her dressed and take her to school. Keep things as normal as possible for her. After school we’ll see how Jay’s doing and if they’ve taken her off the respirator then there’s no reason that she can’t go up and see Janey.” Elley said trying to sound comforting. However, inside she was all torn apart. This was one of her best friends lying in there and she genuinely was worried about Janey. She was fighting back the tears when she saw Joey and Kim walk out of Janey’s room. Kim’s eyes were bloodshot and Joey just looked sad. The two stood there and held each other close as they went to find a seat in the room.

Cay and Lance handed their daughter off to Kim as they went in to see Janey. Cay took one look at her sister and started to sob uncontrollably. Lance held her close and had her inhaler ready in case they would need it. They went up to the side of her bed and Cay held Janey’s hand.

“Hey girlfriend,” she started, “You can’t do this to us Jay. You have three of the most gorgeous daughters in the world you know that. However I am wondering how the two new ones ended up with blonde hair. You wanna explain that one to us?” she tried to joke through her tears, “You have to come back to us Janey. Those girls need their mom and they already miss her…” She tried to continue talking but was crying so hard she was unable to speak. Lance put his hand on Janey and held onto Cay with the other hand.

“Hey sis, we’re all here for you and praying for you okay? You just remember that. Don’t you worry about a thing. You just get yourself better. We’re taking care of Chris and the girls for you. We all love you Janey.” Lance said as he kissed her head. Cay was on the borderline of hysterical and Lance decided that he needed to take her out of there before she ended up having an asthma attack. That was the absolute last thing that they needed at this point. As they exited the room Lance handed Cay off to Kim and Joey and went over to see Justin and Elley who were taking care of Chris. “Has anyone called the girls parents yet?” he asked Elley and Justin.

“I called mom last night but I didn’t call her after the girls were born. She was going to try and fly down. Someone should call them.” Chris said through tears. “I’m going to go back in there with her.” He said as he stood up. JC came back into the room with Kate by his side. She was giggling as they came down the hall and it was all Chris could do not go and scoop her up in his arms and hug her as close as he could and never let go. Justin took Kate so that Elley and JC could go into the room with Chris and took care of calling Jay and Chris’ parents so that they could get to Florida immediately. They all knew that he was going to need the support.

Elley lost her breath momentarily when she walked into the room and saw Janey lying on the hospital bed. She was completely out and they had her on the respirator to help with her breathing. JC held onto her so that she didn’t fall over. Chris went to one side of her bed while JC and Elley stood on the other side. Chris took her hand in his and spoke softly to his wife. He just kept saying over and over again that he loved her more than anything in the world. Elley cried as she looked at her friend and JC began to sing to her. They had all been in the room for several minutes when Janey’s doctor entered the room.

“Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Ferguson, Janey’s doctor. How are you doing Mr. Kirkpatrick?” she asked as she went up to Chris.

“Well, I’ve had my better days,” he began, “but I have two beautiful new baby girls. How’s Janey doctor?” he asked.

“I’m not going to lie to you Chris, your wife suffered a lot during her labor today. As you know she had a reaction to the anesthesia that we used on her and this was something that we could have never predicted. Has she ever had any allergies or reactions to anything like this before?” she asked.

“Not as far as I know of. When she had Kate she was perfectly fine,” Chris explained. “What’s going to happen to her?” he asked not really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Well, right now it’s a waiting game. She did have a seizure prior to delivering your children and has had another small seizure since then. This was due in a large part to the allergic reaction she had to the medication. I don’t think there’s anything more serious than that like epilepsy or anything of a neurological nature. However, I do want to send her up for a cat scan and possibly an MRI just to rule out anything like that. The seizure sent her right into a coma. This is what we are most concerned about right now as well as her breathing. We can tell that she is trying to breathe on her own but she hasn’t yet. We’re going to keep her on the respirator until she we are confident that she can breathe on her own. Does Janey have a will made out?” she asked. This was a question that Chris was not ready for. The simple mention of a will made him shake uncontrollably.

“Yes, yes, she does doctor,” he stammered.

“My reason for asking Chris is not because I think she’s going to die from this but rather to ask if she has a DNR in her will.” Chris thought quickly back to when they were writing out their wills just after Kate was born. They wanted to make sure if, God forbid, anything should happen to either one of them that Kate was well taken care of. Janey had talked about having a DNR put into her will but he had talked her out of it. He made a promise to her that he wouldn’t keep her on life support forever but he wanted at least the chance that she would come back to him. Grudgingly she finally agreed when she realized that it would be best for Kate that her mother was at least given a chance.

“No, actually, she doesn’t have a DNR. She wanted to put one in there but I talked her out of it. However, I did promise that I wouldn’t keep her hooked up to machines forever. She wouldn’t want to live that way. That’s just not my Janey.” He said as tears streamed down his face. Elley and JC looked at their friend and couldn’t even imagine what he was going through at that moment.

“Okay then, we’ll keep her going as long as you want.” The doctor said as she came and put a comforting hand on Chris’ shoulder, “I really think in the end Chris that she’s going to be just fine. It’s just going to be a few days of waiting before we really know a whole lot. These next 24 hours are going to be the most crucial for her.” She explained, “We’ve given her some blood because she really lost a lot more blood during the delivery than I would like to see and we’re going to send her up right away for that Cat Scan and MRI. Take your time with her before we send her up. Have you gone to see your new daughters yet?” she asked.

“Of course. Actually, while Jay is up there getting her tests done I’m going to go and get them.” He explained. The nurses had agreed to let Chris feed the girls seeing as Janey wouldn’t be able to and Elley was going to go up and help him while Cay brought Kate to school and Lance went and got the grandparents from the airport where they would be arriving shortly.

“That’s a good thing. They need to see you and have you around them. Make sure you bring them in here to see Jay as well. Having them close to her will be a wonderful thing for her. How is your other little girl doing?” she asked. Chris explained that they were going to send her to school for the day so that she would keep things as close to normal as possible for her. The doctor agreed that they were doing the right thing however she wanted to make sure that they explained to her what was going on. Although she really wouldn’t understand much it was best that they brought her in to see Janey as soon as they could. Chris wasn’t so sure he agreed but went with what the doctor had to say. He didn’t want to scare Kate. She had seen her Uncle Lance when he was in the hospital but this was her mother and there were tubes coming out of her mouth and from different places in her body. He didn’t want to see Kate scared.

“Well, thank you Doctor, for everything,” Chris said as she turned to leave the room. He looked at his friends with tears in his eyes not really knowing what to say to them.

“She’s going to be okay Chris, you have to keep believing that.” JC finally said.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to believe that right now? Any idea at all? Janey,” he said as he turned to his wife, “I love you more than anything in this entire world. Please sweetie, please, you have to be okay. You have to come back to us Janey. Our girls, they are so beautiful. They have your gorgeous brown eyes and your cute little nose. They are exactly alike Jay. Identical twins can you believe it. All they want to see right now is their mother and to have you hold them close. Please Jay, for all of us, we can’t go on without you. I don’t think I could live without you in my life. I tried it once remember? I drove everyone crazy and that was only for a month. Can you imagine what I’d be like if I was without you for the rest of my life? Jay, I love you so much. Please sweetie…” he tried to continue but he was crying hysterically. Elley had tears in her eyes as she and JC went to Chris side. They each held him close so that he would know that they were there for him.

“We’re right here for you Chris, and you too Janey. We love you both so much. We’re all going to be together forever, our wonderful family of friends. Jay, you have to be okay because you still have a bunch of planning to do for my wedding,” Elley tried to joke with her friend although at that moment, she couldn’t have cared less. All she cared about was seeing Jay up and around and laughing with her new twin daughters. She wanted to see Kate sitting up on the bed with Jay as she fed the children and she sang the three of them to sleep. She just didn’t want to see them all this way.

“We’re ready to bring Janey up for her tests,” the nurse said as she entered the room. JC and Elley took Chris out into the lobby to see everyone.

“How are you Chris,” Janey’s mother said as she came up to Chris with a cup of coffee in hand for him. Everyone was absolutely exhausted. Chris had been at the hospital non stop since Janey went into labor over 24 hours prior and he just sat by her bedside either singing to her or talking to her. Every once in a while Janey would open her eyes and look at Chris or one of their friends who was coming in to talk to her but she still wasn’t out of the clear quite yet. The doctor had said that it was definitely the reaction to the anesthesia that made Janey have her seizures. They were all quite relieved to hear that. She still hadn’t gotten to see her new babies yet, however, Chris had brought the two girls down to see her several times from the nursery. Janey’s parents arrived as soon as they heard that she was in the hospital and as soon as Janey’s mother arrived she sat by her bedside as well with taking breaks to go and see Kate or to let other friends and family come in to see her.

“I’m hanging in there, how are you doing?” he asked as he went to hug his mother-in-law.

“Okay, considering the circumstances. Have you gone up to see your daughters yet this morning?” she asked however she knew what the answer to this was going to be. Chris spent as much time up with his two new little girls as he could. Elley, Cay and Kim were also up there with them often as well.

“Yeah, I did. Aren’t they the most beautiful things in the world,” he said sadly looking down at Janey. “I can’t wait to take them all home and take care of all of them. Janey, Kate, Becca and Kimberly, I just want all of them in the house home with me.” He said as tears filled his eyes.

“They’ll all be home soon Chris, don’t worry. She’s going to pull through this. She’s a stubborn girl; you should know that by now. Chris, I know that you and I don’t get to see each other too often but I want to thank you for taking such wonderful care of my daughter. I remember, before she met you, that her and Cay used to sit around the house for hours talking about you guys and how some day that they wanted to meet you.” Jay’s mom continued to talk about the girls’ antics of their lives before meeting Chris and Lance and having their lives completely turned around. Chris laughed when she told him about how the girls would sit right in front of the television watching the guys and dancing around the house to their music. It was the first time that he had smiled since bringing Janey into the hospital other than the times that he was with his new children.

“Thanks for being here mom, for all of us.” Chris said as he gave his mother-in-law a hug. “I know that she would want you here with her.”

“I’d do anything for my girls Chris, you should know that by now. I love them so much, they are my life. But its nice to know that they both have such loving husbands to take care of them and such incredibly beautiful children to bless their lives.”

“Mom? Chris?” Janey said as she started to stir from her bed.

“Oh my god Janey,” Chris said as he went right to her side. “Sweetie we are right here, your mom and I are both here.”

Janey reached down and felt her flat stomach and immediately panicked. The last she knew she was being taken to the hospital and she was in labor. She hadn’t seen the children yet and was immediately scared. “Chris, the babies, where are they?” she said worried first and foremost about her children.

“Shhh, sweetie, they are fine. We have two beautiful baby girls.” He said as he smiled and kissed her forehead. “Next time, lets remember to tell the doctor what kinds of anesthesia you are allergic too huh?” he asked as he joked with her.

“Chris, what happened?” she asked.

“We’re not going to talk about it now. What I am going to do is kiss you,” he said as he bent down and kissed her on the lips, “And go and get your two beautiful daughters.”

“We had two girls?” she asked with tears in her eyes.

“We sure did. We’re going to have to talk about the blonde hair though. Don’t quite know where they got that from. But Becca and Kim are both doing great.” He said as he left Jay with her mom and went out to see the friends in the waiting area. He walked out with a huge smile on his face and tears in his eyes and everyone knew that things were going to be okay.

“Hey sweetheart. How you feeling?” her mom asked.

“Exhausted. What happened mom? Last thing I knew they were bringing me into the hospital because I had some sharp pains in my back. I don’t remember anything after that.” Janey’s mother held her hand and explained everything that happened. Janey had tears in her eyes as she thought of what happened to her and what could very likely have happened to her. She was grateful that she had such wonderful doctors caring for her and that she had such wonderful people around supporting her.

“I go see mommy now?” Kate asked as she looked up at Elley.

“You sure can sweetie, lets go and see your mom,” she said as she picked Kate up. JC, Justin, Chele, Joey, Kim, Cay and Stephanie as well as Chris’ mom and Janey’s stepfather followed Elley.

“MOMMY!” Kate said as she squirmed out of her Elley’s arms. “I miss you mommy,” she said as she hugged her mother close.

“Oh, I missed you too sweetie.” Janey said as she kissed Kate on the head.

“I see sisters. I see Ecca an Immy,” she said and started to tell her mother all about her new baby sisters. She was going to make a great big sister.

“Hey sweetie,” Cay said as she came up beside her sister. “Please do me a favor, no more kids okay? You’ve got three that’s enough. Your family is not allowed near any more hospitals got it?” she said with tears in her eyes as she leaned down to kiss her sister. Everyone seconded Cay’s feelings on that one. They had all seen enough hospitals to last them a while. As everyone was sitting around talking and joking with Janey, Chris came into the room with two babies all wrapped up in pink blankets.

“Say hi to your mommy girls,” Chris said as Elley moved Kate to the side and he placed the two newborn children into Janey’s arms.

“Oh my goodness,” she said as she started to cry, “They are just beautiful. Hey girls, I’m your mommy.” Janey said as she looked down at the girls.

“Is a sisers mommy,” Kate said as she looked at the babies. “Mommy, you have an owie?” she asked as she saw her mother crying.

“No mommy doesn’t have an owie sweetie.”

“Oh, they happy tears.” She said as she looked at Chris and smiled.

“You got it Kate, those are mommies happy tears.” Chris said as he picked up Kate and held her in his arms.

“Well, I think we ought to let this family all to themselves for a while what do you guys think?” JC asked as he looked around the group. Everyone took a moment to say goodbye to Janey and the rest of her clan as they went to leave the hospital.

“Do you want us to take Kate home with us?” Elley asked before her and JC left the room.

“I think mom’s going to take her home to our place. I’m going to stay here tonight with Jay,” Chris said to their friends.

“Okay, if you need anything at all call us got it?” Elley said.

“No problem sweetie. Thank you for everything.” Janey said to her friends as she turned to look back down at her children. Kate had started to fall asleep at the foot of her bed and the two girls were both on their way to sleep in her arms.

“Goodnight guys,” JC said as they left to head their way home.

“How you doing sweetie?” Chris asked as he sat next to Jay’s bed.

“Exhausted. But aren’t these three the cutest things in the world?” she asked with tears in her eyes.

“They are all absolutely beautiful Jay, and so are you. Do you know how much I love you?” he asked as he brushed her hair away from her eyes.

“I think I have some idea.” Janey said as she looked down at the girls. He bent down and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

“You love me too?” Kate asked from the end of the bed where she had settled herself at her mother’s feet.

“Of course I love you too sweetie,” Chris said as he went to pick her up.

“I love you Mommy,” she said as she gave her mother a kiss, “I love sisers and I love Daddy. Daddy sig?” she asked as Chris put her back at the foot of the bed and grabbed a pillow off of the bed next to Janey.

“Sure I’ll sing. But you have to lie down first,” he said as he stroked her hair. Chris went up and sat next to Janey and the babies and began to sing. It was a song that Janey had heard before and one that she hadn’t listened to in a very long time. It was one that reminded her of times past with her ex Joe, but now it took on a completely different meaning as Chris began to sing it to Janey and their daughters.

“Our love is unconditional 

We knew it from the start 

I can see it in your eyes 

You can feel it from my heart 

From here on after 

Let's stay the way we are right now 

And share all the love and laughter 

That a lifetime will allow 

(Chorus)

I cross my heart  

And promise to 

Give all I've got to give  

To make all your dreams come true 

In all the world 

You'll never find 

A love as true as mine 



You will always be the miracle 

That makes my life complete 

And as long as there's still breath in me 

I'll make yours just as sweet 

As we look into the future 

It's as far as we can see 

So let's make each tomorrow 

Be the best that it can be 

(Chorus)

And if along the way we find a day 

It starts to pour 

You've got the promise of my love 

To keep you warm

In all the world you’ll never find

A love as true as mine

A love as true as mine”

Janey had tears in her eyes as he finished singing the song. She looked down at her three daughters who were all fast asleep and looked into Chris’ deep brown eyes. They smiled at each other and that was all they needed to do. There was so much love in that room at the moment that no words needed to be expressed. He bent down to kiss each of his daughters and then went to Janey and kissed her sweetly.

Life had started to turn back to as normal as life was going to get after Janey and the twins were released from the hospital three days later. Jay and Chris really had their hands full with the babies as well as Kate. Jay’s mom stayed around for a few days to help get everything settled in the house and spend some quality time with her new granddaughters before heading back up to Connecticut. She grudgingly said goodbye to her daughters, their husbands and the children a week later. After her departure all of the friends gathered at the house for a big party to welcome home Janey and the new babies.

“So where are my girls?” Kim asked as she came into house with Joey close behind who was bringing in Brianna.

“Hey guys,” Jay said as she stood in the kitchen preparing bottles for the babies when she saw Joey and Kim come in. “They are up in their room with their father. You might just want to go up and check on them. I haven’t heard a peep out of them in the past 10 minutes. That always scares me ya know.”

“Understood, hang on a sec,” Kim said as she covered her mouth and headed towards the closest bathroom.

“Ah, the wonderful joys of pregnancy,” Janey said as she turned to Joey and Brianna. “Hey sweetie how are you? Are you going to go and play with Kate?” she asked as she went and picked up Brianna.

“Yeah! Can I see the new babies?” she asked.

“You bet sweetie. Uncle Chris is up in their room why don’t you go upstairs and get them.” Jay said as she put down Brianna.

“Joys of pregnancy huh?” Joey asked, “Ya know, this is why I was happy I wasn’t around much while Kelly was pregnant. I can’t handle this. Its like she’s a regular normal person one minute and the next its bitch city. Then there’s the puking which I can’t stand because it just makes me want to go in there after her.”

“Aww, you poor baby,” Jay said as she went to hug Joey, “At least you don’t have to go through it yourself.” Jay said.

“Ya know, sometimes I think we have it worse,” Chris said as he came into the room carrying the two newborns in his arms.

“And how do you figure that? I haven’t seen you in labor yet. Nor have I seen you throwing up, or in pain, or..” Jay started to say as he went up to her and silenced her with a kiss.

“Yes, but dealing with you is bad enough,” Chris said as he handed Becca to Janey.

“Keep it up, just keep it up!” Jay said as she took the infant, “You’re daddy is very mean you know that?” Jay said to Becca as she went to grab the bottles and headed into the living room. “Why don’t you go and see how Kimmy is doing Joe?”

“Yeah, this is the fun part. Just wait until labor; you think she’s bad now. Just you wait!” Chris said as he held Kimberly and began to feed her.

“Thanks for the support guys,” Joey said as he headed to find Kim and make sure she was okay. “How you feeling sweetheart,” Joey said as he found her leaving the bathroom.

“One, that’s it Joe, One. No more. My boobs hurt, I’m puking like I’ve been drinking all night long and I’ve got worse PMS than I’ve ever had in my life. You get one more and that’s it!” Kim said as she brushed past him.

“Yeah, this is fun,” Joey said under his breath as he followed Kim into the living room.

“Here,” Kim said to Chris as she came into the living room and walked up to him, “I need the practice. Let me feed her.” She said as she took Kimberly away from Chris who was only too happy to let her have the chore for a little while. Chris and Jay had been going non-stop taking care of the two girls. Not that they minded in the least but they were a bit beat.

“So Joe, you excited to have another one of these running around your house?” Chris joked with his friend and Kim looked up at him as if to give him a “say you aren’t happy about this and die!” look.

“Hell yeah! I can’t wait!” Joey said as he went over next to Kim to put his arm around her. He watched her feeding Kimberly and thought how happy he was that in a few months; she’d be sitting there feeding their child.

“Good answer,” Kim said as she turned to smile at him.

“Hey everyone! Where’s the party?” Justin said as he and Chele came into the house.

“Hey girls,” Chele said as she came in and gave hugs and kisses to everyone. “And how are my beautiful girls today?” she said as she went up to see the two babies who were busy having being fed. “Jay, how the heck are you guys going to tell these two apart?” she said as she went to sit down on the couch next to Justin.

“Yeah, we were trying to figure that out when we were still in the hospital,” Chris started, “but Kimberly has a birthmark on her upper right arm that Becca doesn’t have.”

“And Becca’s eyes are a darker brown that Kimberly’s are. I guess that will be it for now. Eventually the girls will get their own characteristics and stuff is what the doctors were telling us.” Janey continued.

“Hey guys!” Lance said as he came into the house carrying Stephanie in her car carrier with Cay close behind.

“And how are my lovely nieces today?” Cay said as she came into the room cooing at the babies. “How are they doing Jay?” she asked her sister.

“Fantastic, just absolutely wonderful.” Jay said as Becca finished up her bottle. “Here you wanna take this one for a little bit?” she asked her sister who of course was all but too willing to take the child off of her hands. Lance went and took Stephanie out of her car seat and she was sound asleep.

“Can I put this one down upstairs?” Lance asked Janey and Chris who of course said to put Steffie down in the spare room where they had set up an extra portacrib for these specific circumstances. “Sounds good. Be right back y’all.” He said as he took off to go upstairs.

“UNLE LAAAAAAANCIE!!!!” he heard as he came up the stairs. Those voices could only belong to Kate and Brianna who were playing in Kate’s room.

“Is Seffie?” Kate asked as she looked at the baby in his arms.

“Sure is, she’s gonna go and take a nap. What about you Kate, are you going to take a nap?” he asked as he went towards the spare room with Kate walking close behind.

“I no nap. I big girl!” she said very matter of factly.

“Oh really,” he said as he put Stephanie in the crib with her stuffed Tigger close by. “So what do you think of your new sisters Kate?” he asked as he picked Kate up and took Brianna by the hand to take the girls downstairs so as not to wake the sleeping infants.

“I love sisers. I big siser now Unle Lancie.” She said. “I help Mommy an Daddy.”

“You do?” he asked her.

“Yup, I feed a siser and I burp a siser an I sig a siser.” She said as she rattled off all of the different things that she liked to do to help her mother and father. She was adjusting very well to having two new siblings in the house.

“Wow, you must be a big helper,” Lance said as they reached the living room.

“Unle JC! Auntie Elley!” Kate said as she spotted JC and Elley who had just arrived. She jumped out of Lance’s arms and ran towards Elley.

“Hey cutie pie! How are you big girl? Elley said as she scooped up Kate in her arms.

“I good. You come an pay?” she asked.

“Sure we’ll play in a little bit okay, I wanna go and see your new sisters.”

“Kay,” Kate said looking a little hurt, “Then you pay a me?” she asked.

“You bet sweetie. You wanna come and see your sisters with me?”

“Kay,” she said as Elley carried her into the living room to see the rest of their friends who were all gathered around.

“I don’t want to discuss it any more Joey!” Kim said as she was burping Kimberly. “I’m not planning any wedding or setting any dates until after this baby pops out.”

“Okay sweetie,” Joey said trying to calm her down. “After we have the baby then we are setting the date,” he said as he turned to answer his friends’ question. Chris had asked when they were planning the wedding for when Kim just went off. There was no way she was planning her wedding while she was pregnant. A wedding full of Fatone’s was going to be a huge undertaking and she wanted to be fully prepared for it when the time came.

“What about you guys?” Chele said trying to change the subject as she saw JC and Elley walk into the living room with Kate in Elley’s arms. Brianna was following and took a leap towards Joey’s lap where she was wrapped in a huge hug.

“Actually, everything is pretty much set for ours,” Elley said as she turned to look at JC and smiled. They had all of their wedding plans finished when they went up to visit Elley’s family in Missouri. “All except one thing and we were waiting for you to be here first Chele before we did the last thing.” She said as she turned towards her friend.

“What’s that?” Chele asked looking kind of confused. Justin was sitting close to her with his arm over her shoulder as the two sat snuggled together on the couch.

“I need another bridesmaid and was wondering if you would be in the wedding.” Elley asked.

“Oh my goodness! Yes! Of course I would love to be in the wedding Elley.” She said as she got up to hug Elley and JC.

“I be in a wedin too?” Kate asked as she looked up at Elley who had placed her on the ground to play with Brianna. The two girls were involved in a puzzle and weren’t paying much attention until the mention of the wedding.

“You sure are. Both you and Brianna are going to be in the wedding.” Elley said as she sat down on the ground with the two girls.

“An mommy an daddy?” she asked wanting to know all the details of the wedding.

“Yup, and all your aunts and uncles are going to be in the wedding.” Elley said.

“I pretty?” she asked.

“Oh my goodness of course you are going to look pretty! You and Brianna will be the prettiest two little girls there.” Elley explained.

All of the friends sat around and enjoyed the rest of their afternoon together. They all took time to play with Kate and Brianna and of course to play pass the babies with Kimberly, Rebecca and Stephanie. At that moment everything pretty much perfect in the lives of everyone.

“I look like a freaking cow Elley!” Kim said as she came out of the dressing room for the final fitting on the girls bridesmaid dresses.

“Okay, this is so not my problem Kim. If you and Joey stopped having sex like rabbits then you wouldn’t be pregnant and you’d still be a size 6 and ready to go for the wedding.” Elley joked with her friend. The other girls all looked on and laughed. Jay and Cay knew exactly what Kim was going through. Both of the girls were finally back to their original sizes after the birth of their children and there was no way they would have wanted to be pregnant for a wedding.

“Whatever, just wait until you are pregnant Elley,” Kim said as she looked in the mirror disgusted.

“Kim, you’re pregnant sweetie,” Chele said as she went up to her friend, “Just think, in a few months you are going to have a gorgeous Italian son or daughter to take home and bless the lives of you and Joey.”

“Yeah, but until then I get to deal with weight gain, getting swollen ankles and then, oh the fun begins. LABOR! WOO HOO!” she joked.

“Oh, it will all be okay, its worth it in the end,” Jay said as she came out of the dressing room holding Kate’s hand who was all dressed in her flower girl dress.

“Look at you!” the girls all shrieked as Kate came out. She smiled widely and just looked adorable.

“I pretty!” she said as she twirled around.

“You sure are,” Cay said as she came out of the other dressing room with Brianna, “And look at your cousin Brianna.”

“Hi!” she said as she came out in her dress. They all had to admit it, the two girls looked beautiful. Everyone was out together that day for the girls dress fittings, including all the babies who seemed to be sleeping quietly while the mothers did their final fittings. All of the girls looked just beautiful and were so excited for the wedding next week.

‘Your turn Elley,” Jay said as she turned to her friend who was too busy making sure that everyone else looked okay to go in and try on her own gown. Elley left Brianna and Kate’s sides so that she could go into the dressing room. “She is going to make the most beautiful bride,” Jay said as Elley went inside the dressing room.

“So what are the guys up to today,” Chele asked as they were making the final adjustments on her dress.

“They are all meeting with Johnny. Their year off is almost over and I’m sure that they are going to start planning what’s next for the guys,” Cay continued checking on Stephanie who was sleeping soundly. “Lance was telling me last night that they want me to start recording my new album soon. This one should be great though because Elley and JC are going to be producing the whole thing.”

“You bet!” Elley said from the dressing room listening to the conversation, “that way you can bring Stef with you while you record because we’re going to do most of the work right from our studio at the house.”

“Will you shut up and get dressed!” Kim hollered to her friend, “We are all standing around here waiting for you.”

“Oh fine,” Elley said as the girls continued to talk.

“What do you think is next for them,” Kim asked not really sure that she wanted to hear this. The last thing that she really wanted was for Joey to be hitting the road in February right after the baby was born and then she’d be at home with a Kindergartener and a new born. That would be really rough on her.

“Not really sure. Chris didn’t give me much of an idea but then again I don’t think that he has much of a clue. We’re just waiting at this point.” As Jay finished talking she heard the familiar ring of her cell phone. “Hang on a sec girls, we might just have our answer.” She said as she picked up the phone and had Chele come over and take care of Kate while she took the call. “Hello this is Janey,” she said to the unfamiliar voice. It was one that she hadn’t heard in a while but she seemed real excited to be talking on the phone. The girls tried not to listen but they were hoping that if it was one of the guys, listening to the one sided conversation would be their hint as to what their guys would be up to for the next few months. “Oh wow! Hi. Yeah, I’m doing great. Uh huh, Kate’s wonderful and we now have twin baby girls. Yup, they were born in August. They are just gorgeous, getting bigger every day. Chris is doing fine, he and the guys took the year off so that we could all have a normal life for a little while. Well, I know you’re not just calling to check up on me so what’s going on? Really? Wow, that’s incredible. Oh my goodness, what an honor,” Jay said getting excited the girls were all sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear what all the excitement was about. “Well, what time frame are you looking at? Okay, well, of course I’d like to say yes right away, this is an incredible honor, but first I need to talk it over with Chris and figure out the children situation and stuff. Can I get back to you? Great, I should know within the next day or so. Thank you again and it was great talking to you. I will, bye.” She said as she hung up the phone. Jay smiled as she put the phone away and heard Kimberly start crying so she went to pick her up and give her a bottle.

“Okay, give. What the heck?” Kim said as she came over to see Kimberly. She took the infant out of Janey’s arms so that Jay could go and take care of Becca who seemed to have wakened up.

“Well, not really sure yet. That was Keith Lockhart from the Pops.” Janey began.

“Oh my god! What’s going on with them Jay? Do they want you back?” Cay asked. Jay hadn’t been playing much since Kate was born but every once in a while she would go up and do some performances with them. She would have liked nothing better than to pick up and move back up to Boston so that she could perform full time again but she loved her family and there was no way in the world she’d give that up.

“Well, turns out they’ve been asked to do the soundtrack for the new Star Wars movie. John Williams has composed the music, of course, and he’s going to be conducting. Well, they want me to perform on the soundtrack.” Jay said with a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

“Oh my god! That’s incredible!” Chele said as she went over to hug Jay.

“Yeah, but lets think about this seriously for a minute girls. I have 3 children, 2 of which are less than 6 months old, I’ve got a 3 year old and I’ve got a husband in a pop group. How do you figure I’m going to be able to do this? I’d be gone in Boston for at least 2 months with the recording and rehearsals and all.” Jay said seriously considering this as she went over to make sure Kate wasn’t getting herself into any trouble. She found Kate and Brianna sitting on the floor with coloring books in front of them and Brianna was showing Kate how to write different letters.

“Talk to Chris,” Kim said as she put Kimberly back into her stroller. “I’m gonna venture a guess that he’d really want you to go and do this. He knows how much you love to play and how happy that makes you. I can’t see him wanting to take that away from you.”

“Okay, but hello, I’d be up there in February for 2 months. We don’t even know what the guys will be doing. For all we know they’ll be on tour someplace and there’s no way I can do this with the girls.” Jay said as she looked down at her daughters. She looked at her friends who she knew all really wanted her to do this. “Okay, Okay, I’ll talk to Chris when we get home tonight.” Jay said as Elley walked out of the dressing room. She looked absolutely beautiful.

“Auntie Elley, you look pretty!” Kate said as she looked up from her work that she was doing with Brianna.

“You look absolutely stunning,” Jay said as she went up to her friend. Elley made a beautiful bride and JC was going to just loose it when she walked down that aisle.

“So what is it they want you to do?” Chris asked again as they were sitting down to dinner. They had already put the babies down so it was just Chris, Kate and Janey sitting at the table.

“Record the soundtrack to the new Star Wars movie. From what I understand the rehearsals will be in Boston and then we fly out to LA to do the actual recording. We’re going to be working with John Williams,” Jay said as Chris got a confused look on his face as if he knew the name but was trying to place it, “You know, the guy who wrote the music for all the Star Wars movies, Superman, Indiana Jones?” She explained.

“Oh wow!” Chris said getting excited for his wife.

“Yeah, its great but Chris, we can’t do this,” she said as she cut up Kate’s dinner for her.

“You go bye bye bye Mommy?” Kate asked as she looked at her mother.

“I’m not going anywhere sweetie. Not without you at least okay?” she said. Kate wasn’t letting her mother out of her sight after the incident with the birth of the girls. It was getting better with school but Kate was causing scenes in the morning and she would be worried that she wouldn’t see her mother after school.

“Kay, an Daddy too?” she asked.

“Yup, Daddy too.” Jay said, “End of story Chris, we can’t do this. There’s just no way. I’m going to call Keith in the morning and let him know that as honored as I am I can’t do it.”

“Oh no you’re not.” Chris said trying to control his temper. He didn’t to show Kate that he was upset. “I’m going to talk to Johnny tomorrow and find out what our schedule is going to be like. You said it won’t take anymore than two months right?” he asked.

“Yes, you know what, why don’t we discuss this later.” Jay said motioning towards Kate’s direction as if to tell him that we’d be talking about this after she went to bed.

An hour later dinner was finished and Chris was upstairs tucking Kate into bed and peeking in on the twins who were sound asleep. He bent down over their cribs and kissed them both on the cheek and headed down into the kitchen where Jay was cleaning up. He thought to himself as he went down how he was going to win this argument with Janey. She had given up so much to raise their family and stay with Kate once she was born. It had always been her dream to perform with the Pops and she barely got to be with them a full year before she gave birth to Kate. At that time she took a permanent leave of absence but the door was always left open for her to come back. They really loved her playing and she enjoyed it more than anything. Chris’ goal was to convince her that they could make this work. Whether they had to hire a nanny while she was rehearsing or they got one of their parents to help out with the kids, he had to convince her that this was the right decision to make.

“Hey beautiful,” Chris said as he came up behind her in the kitchen and kissed her on the neck, something that drove her absolutely mad.

“Hey sweetie,” she said as she leaned back into him.

“So you wanna talk about this?” he asked her as she had her eyes closed and his arms were around her.

“Chris, there really isn’t much to talk about. You guys have all taken so much time off this year and it’s not fair to your fans for you to take any more time. I just can’t do this.”

“Let’s think about this a minute Jay.” He said as he took her hand and led her into the living room where they sat on the couch snuggled close together. “What about our friends, you know that Elley would help out in any way she could. Or even Cay, or..”

“Chris, I can’t do that to them,” Jay interrupted. “Cay already has Stephanie and she’s got her career to work on. Elley has got her producing that she’s been doing and working with JC. Chele doesn’t even live here. Kim’s going to have a newborn. We just can’t do it. I will call Keith and tell him tomorrow that I’m not doing this.”

“Jay, listen to me for a sec okay? Please don’t say anything yet. Let’s wait and see what Johnny has planned for the group. Then we can make the decision we have to make. I really want you to do this.” He said as he kissed her on the lips softly. “You deserve it more than anyone I know and I want to see your name on a CD.” He said as he smiled down at her.

“Fine,” she said as she sighed, “If that’s what you want. But here’s the deal, we are not arguing with Johnny about this got it?” she asked Chris as she turned her body to look at him square in the eyes. “Christopher, say that you agree with me or I’ll go and call Keith right now and tell him that I’m not doing it.”

“Okay,” he said as he pulled her close, “I promise not to argue with Johnny about this. But promise me that you’ll at least think of the idea of a nanny or having Elley or one of the other girls help out please?”

“Deal,” she said as Chris pulled her close.

“How bout we seal this deal huh?” he asked as he pushed her backwards with his arms around her so that he was lying on top of her.

“Mmmmm…” she said as he began to kiss her, “Sounds good to me.” And with that they were lost in each other for the rest of the night.

“So do you really think she’d go for this?” Chris asked JC the next day as the guys were all sitting around Johnny’s office. Johnny had explained to the guys that starting in February it would be back to the studio to start working on the new CD and then on the road come June. The fans had been really nice about them taking time off but they wanted to get back into the scene soon.

“I dunno Chris. Jay is pretty determined when she wants to be and it sounds to me like she doesn’t want to impose on anyone.” JC said as he sat down next to Elley. She had been involved in the talks about the CD as well because she was going to be helping JC in producing some of the new songs.

“Chris, do you want me to talk to her about it?” Elley asked. “If she knows I’m all for this then she might just be okay with it.”

“Well, let me talk to her first. She’d be pretty damn pissed if you just went and talked to her without her saying anything about it at all. I just really want her to do this ya know?”

“Well, if anyone deserves this it is her. What will her schedule be like?” Elley asked, as she wanted to get all the details of what she was getting into. It wasn’t like she was a stranger to the girls. She absolutely loved all three of them but she also knew this was going to be a huge job for her. The hard thing was going to be convincing Janey that this was a good idea.

“They are going to be rehearsing the last two weeks in February and then off to LA to do the actual recording. I’m going to fly her home weekends or else I’ll be flying up there and I’ll take care of you too Elley. Either JC and I will both fly up or we’ll fly all of you here whenever you have time.”

“Chris, you seriously aren’t thinking of flying seven month old children all over the country are you?” Elley asked thinking of how much strain that would put on everyone involved. “Have you thought of having the girls stay here and Jay going up to Boston by herself and then out to LA?” she asked. She kind of figured there was absolutely no way in hell Jay would go for this but it was worth a shot.

“You’re kidding right? You honestly think she’ll be able to stay away that long? I mean, it’s a good idea and all but come on. There’s no way she’d go for that one.” Chris said as he pondered how the heck this was going to work out.

“Talk to her Chris,” Justin said as he came up and sat next to his friend. “She’s gotta do this. This is the chance of a lifetime for her.”

“Yeah, and if she doesn’t go for it, we’ll all come over and talk her into it.” Lance said from the other side of the room.

“Or I could have Kimmy kick her around a little. She’s hormonal enough to do just about anything these days.” Joey said, “But I think that might just be with guys.” Everyone laughed as Joey explained Kim’s latest hormone surges. She’d been pretty rough on Joey and he was explaining some of his bruises that she had given him. “This isn’t funny guys!” he said as he started to laugh a little. “Okay, so yeah it is. I just can’t wait for this damn pregnancy to be over.”

“You know Joey that’s not real nice to say about a woman who is going to have your child,” Jay joked from the door. She had stopped by to see the guys after their meeting was over and was pushing a double stroller with the twins. “So who’s ass is Kim going to kick huh?” she asked as Elley came over to take Becca out of her seat and Chris came over to say hello.

“Ummmmm…” Joey tried to think real quickly.

“Mine,” Justin piped up quickly, “This whole thing with Chele and I. She’s ready for me to make this whole relationship official and she’s sick and tired of us just screwing around.” Justin and Chele had been seeing each other pretty serious for a while now but they weren’t officially “dating” because Justin was too scared to make a commitment after the number that Brit pulled on him.

“Well, you tell Kim that I’ll be right beside you kicking his ass okay Joe.” Janey said as she picked Kimberly out of the stroller and sat on the couch to give her a bottle. “So what’s the deal guys? What’s the schedule going to be?”

“Looks like we’re hitting the road in June.” Lance said, “which is a good thing for Cay and I at least because her album will have already been released and we’ll be able to do all her promo stuff with me still around so I can take care of Stef.”

“Yup and we hit the studios in February again. That is if we don’t do some screwing around of our own up until then.” Justin piped up from his seat, “I’ve already got some ideas that I wanna try out and I know C has some too.” Janey went and took a seat next to Chris with Kimberly in her arms as Elley cooed with Becca.

“Sounds good guys. So this albums gonna get you that Grammy right?” Janey said joking with them. It had been known all along that the guys were the Susan Lucci of the Grammy awards. Every year they were nominated but as of yet had not one a single one.

“Yeah sure,” JC said as he sat next to Elley to play with the baby, “Like we’d ever actually win one of those awards. It would be a cold day in hell.”

“Either that or we’d have to be up on the stage with our walkers on our one day passes from the nursing home,” Joey said as everyone busted out laughing. The friends all sat around joking for a while longer before the babies started to fuss and Chris and Janey headed out to bring them home for naps and to pick Kate up from school.

“So I guess you guys have this all figured out then huh?” Janey asked as she and Chris lay in bed together that night.

“Well, yeah, we do. Jay you need to do this. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. I know that it’s going to be rough for a few weeks there but then when you are out in California Johnny is looking into booking some studio time for us out there. That way we can stay at my old apartment out there. It will be a little cramped but Justin has also offered his place to us. Then we can all be together out there. Kim, Elley and Cay are probably going to come out to California too so there will be lots of babysitters around for the girls and its not like they girls don’t know them.” Chris was trying to sound as convincing as possible with the whole scenario. He still wasn’t sure it was going to work but Jay was starting to come around. She even agreed that the girls should all stay in Florida while she was up in Boston rehearsing. However, she wanted them all out in California together.

“Okay,” she said as she turned over to face Chris. “Let’s do this. It’s going to be hell on all of us but its not like we haven’t been through worse right?” she asked.

“We’ll make it Jay,” he said as he kissed her, “I promise, I want this to work.” He wanted this to work. It just had to work, for everyone involved. The two fell asleep wrapped up in each other’s arms with thoughts of the months to come going through their heads. They had holidays coming up, they had new cousins on the way and they had a beautiful wedding of their best friends to attend. It would be a busy time but it would be spent the way it always should be, together.

“Is everyone here?” Elley asked as she nervously paced around the bridal suite. “Where are my grandfathers? Why aren’t they here yet? Is JC doing okay?”

“El, will you chill please. You are going to be fine. Your grandfather’s are right outside waiting for me to finish making sure you are ready. Do you want me to have the rest of the girls come in yet?” Janey asked as she put the finishing touches on to Elley’s hair and made sure she looked just perfect. She was a beautiful bride and looked like a princess.

“Yeah, go ahead. Jay, wait a sec,” she said as Janey went to grab the door to let the rest of the bridal party and her grandfathers and her mother into the room.

“Huh?” Jay asked as she turned around.

“I just wanted to say thank you, for everything.” Elley said as tears filled her eyes.

“Sweetie, with everything you have done for Chris and I we should be thanking you. You look absolutely beautiful and just like I told you when you first put that dress on, he’s going to drop dead when he sees you in it.” Janey went up to give Elley a hug and the girls shared a quick sentimental moment before letting everyone else into the room.

Elley’s grandparents and mother came in first followed by her brothers. They were all so proud of their girl and all that she had accomplished. No one believed her when she told them that she was moving all the way to Florida away from the place that she felt comfortable. She gave up everything to follow her dreams and although the family wasn’t thrilled at first they warmed up to the idea. They all loved JC as much as they loved Elley and they knew that he’d take good care of her.

Jay was in the other suite making sure the rest of the girls were all ready and straightening Kate’s dress and making sure her long hair was pulled back. As Jay was fixing her daughters dress she thought back to all that had happened to get them all to this point. She looked up at Kim who was very pregnant but was just so happy with Joey. Kim was making sure that Brianna was all set to go and she just looked like the perfect mother. Chele and Cay were off talking about how Justin had finally made the relationship between Chele and him official. Everyone was just thrilled. It was a long time coming but they all knew that Justin would finally come around after a while. “You girls all set?” Janey asked as she took her daughter’s hand.

“You look pretty mommy,” Kate said as she looked up at her mother with her big brown eyes.

“Aw, thank you sweetie, you look very pretty too. Do you remember what you are supposed to do?” she asked her daughter as she got down to her level.

“Yup, me and Brianna toss the petals on the ground right?” she asked. Kate’s vocabulary had gotten so much better since she had started school and she was sounding more and more like a little person every day.

“That’s right, do you wanna go and see Aunt Elley now?”

“YEAH!” Brianna and Kate exclaimed together. Jay led the group of girls down to the bridal suite to find the bride and her family giving each other hugs as her brothers walked their mother down the aisle. Everyone lined up for the procession.

The church was absolutely beautiful. Because it was so close to Christmas, the church was already decorated for the holidays with beautiful lights in every window. The girls each carried a bouquet of beautiful roses of yellow and white roses with red tips. The five guys stood at the front of the church each looking more handsome than the next. As each of the girls reached the front of the church they met up with their respective partner and stood together with them. Elley and JC wanted all of their friends standing up for both of them just as Cay and Lance did for their wedding Janey was the last of the older girls to walk down the aisle and she did that right before giving Brianna and Kate kisses and wishing her friend good luck. She made her way down the aisle and looked at all of their friends in attendance. The bridal procession began to play as Chris and Janey and Joey and Kim looked at their beautiful little girls walking down the aisle.

The moment finally arrived and Elley stood at the back of the church. JC got tears in his eyes as he looked at his beautiful bride who was being escorted down the aisle by both of her grandfathers. It was a struggle for her to decide who would walk her down so in the end they just decided to have both of them walk her down the aisle. Elley reached the front of the church and her grandfather’s handed her off to JC.

The ceremony was beautiful and it was finally time for the vows. Elley and JC had decided that they were going to write their own vows and it was time for Elley to say hers. “Josh,” she began, “Never in my life could I have dreamt that this day would come. I must have pinched myself at least 25 times today to prove to myself that this is really happening to me. But here I stand, with the most wonderful person in the world standing in front of me. Not only do you care about me but also you care about me so much that you want me to be your wife. Joshua, I promise to love you and care for you forever. I love you more than words could even begin to express. I gladly become your wife today and promise to be there for the rest of our lives.” Elley barely got the last words out as tears streamed down her face.

“Elley,” JC began, “I always say things better with music, and so I decided what better way to express my love for you than with a song.” JC took her hand and led her over to the piano that was set off to the side. He sat down and began to play and sing.

“Ordinary, no really don’t think so

Not a love this true

Common destiny

We were meant to be

Me and You

Like a perfect scene from a movie screen

We’re a dream come true

Suited perfectly for eternity

Me and You

Every day I need you more

At the nighttime too

There’s no way I could ever let you go

Even if I wanted to

Every day I live

I try my best to give

All I have to you

I thank the stars above

That we share this love

Me and You

Everyday I need you even more

At the nighttime too

There’s no way I could ever let you go

Even if I wanted too

Ordinary no, really don’t think so

Just a precious few

Ever make it last

Get as lucky as

Me and You”

Everyone had tears in their eyes as JC sang the last words of the song. Elley sat there in amazement at the person who was singing to her. She knew that she was the luckiest woman in the world to be in love with this person.

“I love you Elley,” he whispered to her as they headed back over to the alter hand in hand.

“I love you too Josh,” she said as the minister finished the ceremony.

“I now present to you for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Scott Chasez!” the DJ said as JC and Elley made their first appearance as man and wife together. All of the friends had a wonderful time dancing, singing, eating and drinking together. They enjoyed just sharing time together. JC and Elley shared their first dance together to the same song that JC sang to her at the wedding by Kenny Chesney and the two were lost in each other for the rest of the night. Kate and Brianna went home with a babysitter hired especially for that night so that their parents could just enjoy their time together. The friends all sat around together joking about the past five years that they had spent together and the girls even spilt a little bit about their times spent prior to meeting the guys. They talked about their all night chat sessions and their little inside jokes that they had.

After much talking and dancing everyone decided that it was time to head on back to their homes. They were all going to be spending Christmas with their respective families so that the new children could be shown off and they could touch base with them before the next busy year would begin. They were all ready for a new start after the past year that they had experienced. They almost lost two members of their small family and hoped that they would never have a year like that again.

**************************************************************************************************

Time passed as it always does and the New Year came and went. Janey made her way up to Boston to rehearse with the Pops for the CD recording and Elley, Cay, Chele and Kim helped out with the children. It was hard for Janey to leave them all behind but Chris insisted that this was the right thing to do. She came home on the weekends so that she could be with the girls and Chris and Jay enjoyed all the time that they were together. Jay would call every night, just like Chris did when he was on tour with the guys. Jay tried hard to not miss the girls too much but that was absolutely impossible. Her mind was occupied pretty well during the day with rehearsals but the nights were spent very lonely in the home that she and Cay used to share. It was nice to be able to have a place to stay while she was up there but it wasn’t the same without Kate’s laughter ringing through the house or even hearing the babies crying.

Ring….Ring….Ring….

“Hello?” Janey asked in a very tired voice. It was Thursday and the week was almost over and she was looking forward to going down to Florida the next day. She had been in Boston for 2 weeks and was going to be flying back to Florida in order to fly out to California with her family and all of their friends the next week.

“Hey, how soon can you get here?” Joey asked in a frantic voice.

“Nice to talk to you too Joe! I’m coming home tomorrow, why? What’s going on?”

“It’s Kim! The baby’s coming, like now! You need to be here!” he exclaimed into the phone.

“Calm down Joe, everything is going to be fine. Let me give Keith a call. They might not need me tomorrow, we are just doing touch ups and hopefully I can fly home tonight. I’ll call you right back.”

“Okay, but get here soon okay?” he said.

“No problem sweetie, I’ll be there as soon as I can. You go take care of Kimmy. Is she beating you up yet?” Janey joked. She knew that Kim had been ruthless at the beginning of her pregnancy and labor was going to be absolutely crazy.

“Not yet,” he laughed, “I’ll see you soon Jay!”

“You got it. Give Kim a hug for me and I’ll see you soon!” she said as she hung up the phone. Janey quickly went and called her conductor who told her to go right ahead and get back to her friend. They would see her in a few weeks out in California. Janey quickly went and called the airline and booked the next flight and packed her things to get down south as soon as possible. She called Chris to let him know she was coming back and headed on her way to the airport to go back home.

“Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr.! Get your ass in here now!” Kim yelled from inside of the delivery room as Joey was trying to take a quick break from Kim’s yelling and screaming. He knew that she was in a lot of pain but this was unreal.

“How’s it going dad?” Justin asked as he went up to his friend.

“Dear god, we’re never having another child. Forget this! She’s insane!” Joey exclaimed.

“You better get back in there Uncle Joey,” Kate said as she looked up at her uncle, “Aunt Kimmy sounds like she’s real mad.” Chris went and picked up Kate trying to stifle his laughter that he just wanted to break out with. Kate was such a complete combination of both him and Jay and it made him laugh with some of the stuff that came out of her mouth.

“Yeah, okay, I’m going back into purgatory. This is what I get right? This is my punishment for all those years of being a player isn’t it?” he said as he went back into the delivery room.

“MOMMY!!!!” Kate exclaimed as she saw her mother running down the hall to the group of friends. Kate took a leap out of Elley’s arms where she was settled on the couch reading when her mother was in sight.

“Hey baby girl, how are you sweetie?” she asked as she dropped her things and scooped Kate up in her arms.

“I’m not a baby anymore mommy, I’m a big girl!” she said very matter of factly.

“Oh that’s right. I forgot about that. So how is my big girl today?”

“I missed you mommy.” She said as she put her head on her mothers shoulder. Jay thought about how great it was to have her daughter back in her arms.

“Oh, I missed you too sweetie,” Jay said as she hugged her daughter and went over to say hello to the rest of the group. “So how’s it going? How’s Kim doing?” she asked as she went up to Chris.

“Driving Joey up a wall and back down again,” Elley said as she came over to say hello. “Joey thinks this is his punishment.” Everyone laughed at the comment and came around to welcome Janey back home. Kate wouldn’t leave her arms so they had to hug her around the child

“Gosh I missed you so much,” Chris said as he placed a kiss on her head.

“Daddy,” Kate said “What about my kisses?” she asked feeling a little left out.

“Oh you want kisses huh?” JC said as he came over and took Kate out of Janey’s arms so that Jay and Chris could say hello properly. JC and Elley sat Kate down between them on the couch and smothered the little girl with hugs and kisses.

“JOEY! I can’t believe I let you do this to me!” Kim said as she laid on the hospital bed in the delivery room.

“Kim, sweetie just breath. Remember what we learned in class.”

“Screw that Joe! This fucking hurts like hell!” she screamed.

“Breath Kimmy, just think in just a little bit we’re going to have a beautiful child with..”

“SHUT UP!!!! Just Shut up!!!” she screamed as she hit Joey in the arm.

“OW! DAMN that hurt Kim!”

“You know what, just imagine what I’m going through. That was nothing. One Joe, one, that’s it that’s all you get!”

“Yes, I know honey, you’ve told me this many times. I’m only getting one child. But would you please push the mother fucker out so that I can have him?” he asked.

“Him? What the hell makes you think this is gonna be a boy huh? I had a talk with God; this is going to be a girl. This thing made me sicker than anything. That’s the way that Jay was with Kate and the twins and how Cay was with Steff. It’s a girl damn it!”

“Hey guys,” Jay said as she walked into the room trying not to laugh as she had just heard the conversation from outside the door. “How’s it going girl?” she said as she went up and sat next to Kim. “Hey Joe, why don’t you go out there and let everyone know how she’s doing?” Jay said as Joey flashed her a smile and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Jay, how the hell did you give birth to three kids? This is absolute hell!”

“It will all be over soon sweetie and just think, you’re going to have a beautiful baby when this is all over,” Jay said as she went to go and get ice chips for Kim to chew on.

“Whatever, I’m just having one of these damn things and that’s it!” she said as another contraction came over her. Jay held her hand and waited for it to pass. “You know what, maybe its better I have a girl in here rather than Joe. I mean, you can’t do this shit to me and make me in this pain.” Janey laughed at her friend as Joey came back into the room with the doctor close behind.

“Well Miss Kimberly, it looks like its just about time.” The doctor said as he looked up at Kim and Joey.

“Hell yeah! Lets get this over with. Hey doc, can she stay too?” Kim asked as she pointed towards Janey.

“Sure no problem,” the doctor said as Janey stood on one side of Kim with Joey on the other. “You ready?”

“Lets go!” Kim said as she was getting a bit agitated.

“Ready, PUSH!” the doctor said as the baby made its way into the world. A few minutes later a loud shriek filled the room as Kim gave one last push and her baby was born. “It’s a boy!” the doctor said as he lifted up the baby.

“Oh my god,” Kim said as her eyes filled with tears. She turned to look at Joey who had tears streaming down his face. “We have a baby boy.”

“We sure do,” he said as he kissed her head and then their new baby.

Cay, Elley and Chele all peaked their heads inside the door when they heard the new baby crying.

“Can we come in?” Cay asked as Joey nodded his head. All of the friends as well as Joey and Kim’s parents all came into the room.

“Quite the party you’ve got here,” the doctor said as everyone came into the room.

“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to my son Ethan River Fatone.” He said as he picked up his newborn baby and passed him around the room.

“Another cousin?” Kate asked as she looked up at Chris who was holding her.

“Yup, that’s another cousin. This is Ethan.” He said as Jay held Ethan and showed him to Kate.

“Hi Ethan! I’m Kate, I’m your cousin.” She said as she smiled down at the baby. “Can I give Ethan a kiss?” Kate asked as she looked up at Chris.

“Sure go ahead,” Chris said and Kate bent down to give her new cousin a kiss.

“You know what,” Cay said as she looked at the group gathered around the room, “I think we should leave this little family alone for a while.”

“You’re right,” Lance said as he went to give Kim and Joe hugs goodbye.

“Thanks for being here guys,” Kim said as she held her new baby.

“Bye!” everyone said as they left the room.

“I love you Kim,” Joey said as he sat on the bed next to her.

“I love you too Joe. I’m sorry about hitting you.” She said with a smile on her face as she looked down at her baby. “You’re still only getting one.”

And with that one simple moment, all seemed right with the world.

Epilogue

“So what do you think the chances are of this actually happening tonight?” Jay asked Caytlyn as the girls all enjoyed their day at the salon. The children were all off with their grandparents so this was one of the first times that the girls could actually enjoy some girl time.

“I have no clue. I mean, I’d love for it to happen tonight but look at their history with this kind of thing,” Caytlyn said as she turned to look at her sister and their friends.

“I for one would love to see them finally get the credit they deserve. They’ve worked so hard for this and it’s about time.” Elley said from the other side of the room.

“Well, regardless,” Kim started, “we are going to look hot as hell!”

“Heck yeah, and I finally get to go too!” Chele said. This was going to be the first time that she was going to attend an awards ceremony with Justin and she was just so excited. They all knew that the night was going to be hard on Justin because Britney had planned on taking Wade to the ceremony but having Chele by his side he knew it would all be okay.

The girls all finished having their hair and nails done as well as facials for each of them and they were all completely relaxed as they went back to the hotel to get dressed for their night out. Janey reached into her bag and pulled out a slender black box that she hadn’t taken out in quite a while. She opened it and looked at the diamonds and amethysts lying in the box. Chris would be so surprised that she had taken it out again. It had been good luck the last time she wore the necklace and bracelet and she was hoping that this night would be good luck for her husband again. Chris came out of the bathroom humming the music for the song they were performing that night and looked at his wife.

“Hey,” he said as he went up behind her.

“Mmmmmm, you know, I miss this time when it’s just the two of us.” Janey said as she leaned back into him.

“Me too. You and I need to get away sometime.”

“Yeah, when you figure out a time for us to go on vacation you let me know okay?” Jay said as she turned around to face Chris. He was dressed more conservatively than he normally did in a gray Armani suit that just fit him perfectly. “You look absolutely amazing tonight.” She said as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.

“Well, nothing compares to the way you look,” he said as he stared at Janey who was dressed in a floor length purple gown. “You look positively stunning tonight. I just hope that someone doesn’t steal you away from me.” He said as he held her close in an embrace.

“Can you help me with this?” she asked as she handed him the box with the necklace and bracelet inside.

“I haven’t seen you wear these in forever,” he said as he took the box. “How long ago did I give these to you?”

“Well, let me give you a hint. You know that little person who wanted to be here tonight more than anything in the world? Well, the night that she became a reality, that’s when you gave it to me.” She said as she smiled up at Chris. “I figured they were good luck that night and seeing as you guys need some good luck tonight then I figured I’d wear them again.”

“I love you Jay,” Chris said as he turned her around after fastening the necklace.

“I love you too Chris.” She said as she kissed him.

“And I love both of you but we’ve gotta get the heck out of here or we’re going to be late!” Justin said from the doorway.

“Guess it’s kinda like home huh? No one feels the need to knock on our door. What if we were in here having sex or something?” Chris joked.

“Yeah, like Jay would risk messing up her hair,” Justin said as he went over to say hello, “You look radiant this evening.” He said as he kissed her hand. Justin looked interesting in lead color suit with a fuchsia shirt. Chele was dressed in a black dress that came just below her knee.

“Nice shirt kid,” Jay said as she looked at Justin’s color choice.

“Yeah, I tried to talk him out of that but it didn’t work.” Chele said.

“It’s a fashion statement.” Justin argued.

“Sure it is, it says ‘Hi! I’m a dork and I need to stand out in the crowd!’” Chris joked with his friend as they all busted out laughing.

“What’s all the noise about?” Elley said as she and JC entered into the suite. Elley looked amazing in a blue gown that fell to the floor in layers. JC looked great as well as he was dressed in black dress pants with a black leather jacket and a black tie. “Dear god Justin, what were you thinking?” Elley said as she looked at Justin’s shirt.

“So this is where the party is huh?” Kim said as she and Joey entered the room with Cay and Lance following behind. Kim was dressed in a maroon strapless dress that fell mid calf and Joey was dressed in a black suit with a grayish silver matching shirt and tie set. “Check this out guys, I can actually wear a strapless dress because I have boobies due to the baby! Something good came out of all that pain.”

“Kim, you mean the only good thing that came out of your pregnancy was bigger boobs?” Justin asked.

“Yeah, well, okay, it was one of the perks. What the fuck Justin? You look like you lost an argument with a pig!”

“Is everyone going to make fun of me tonight?” He asked.

“That is the current plan. Serves you right for wearing that color Justin. Jay you look stunning,” Caytlyn said as she went up to give her sister a hug. Cay was dressed in a red vintage Valentino gown. Lance complimented her perfectly with his navy blue suit. “Hey, look at my new Blahnick’s!” Cay said as she showed her shoes to everyone, “Lance bought them for me yesterday as a present.”

“Because clearly she doesn’t have enough shoes to wear right Lance?” Chris said as he came to hug his sister in law.

“I think I’ve heard just about enough out of you,” she joked back. “So everyone’s here, are we ready to go?”

“Yeah, lets head out,” Jay said as she grabbed her purse and they all headed to the limos that were waiting for them.

Two hours later the group found themselves seated in the auditorium awaiting the awards to be handed out. The guys would be performing during the show and the girls were excited to see what they’d be doing. They hadn’t given the girls any idea as to what they’d be singing that night and had managed to keep them away from the gossip mill so that they wouldn’t hear about it. They wanted it to be a complete surprise.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, NSYNC!” the crowd went wild as the curtain went up and revealed the guys all sitting on stools getting ready to sing. They sang a song that had become very familiar to the girls in the past year. As they sang the words everyone remembered the time at Chris and Jay’s when the guys sang this to them.

“Some say it wasn’t worth the things we went through

I say it ain’t worth loosing you.

I hope you know how much you’ve changed all our lives

Someday you’ll see

If Only through Heavens Eyes.”

The crowd went crazy as the guys took their bows. The girls were all so excited for them and stood on their feet in a standing ovation. The next moment was the part that everyone had been waiting anxiously for. The presentation of Best Pop/Rock performance by a group or duo.

“And the nominees are…” Britney began as she announced the nominees for the award. It was the typical group of nominees, Backstreet Boys, U2, Train and NSYNC were all nominated. The guys didn’t think that they had a chance.

“And the winner is….” She began. The girls all held hands in the audience saying silent prayers that the guys wouldn’t be looked over once again this year. “NSYNC!” Everyone rose to their feet in a standing ovation. The guys stood backstage in awe that their names were just called and they all went out to the stage.

JC went to the microphone first, “Wow, Wow! I can’t believe this! This is really very unexpected. We’d like to thank everyone who helped to make this album a reality…” he continued to thank all of their producers as well as Jive Records and Johnny Wright for all of their help. “We’d also like to thank all of our wives and girlfriends for their patience and love that they show us everyday. Elley, Janey, Caytlyn, Chele and Kim, we love you girls. Thanks again!” The guys went backstage to finish up their interviews that they had to do as the girls all sat in the audience waiting patiently for them to return. There were still 3 other awards they were up for and the waiting had just begun.

The group all sat through the rest of the performances of the evening and was even surprised to win 2 more awards. This was more than they could have ever hoped for but the big one was yet to come. It was the last award of the night and the friends really thought that there was no way at all they’d win Album of the Year. It was such a long shot that they were even nominated for that category so winning was just out of the question.

“And the nominees for Album of the Year are. NSYNC for NLOVE with NSYNC, U2 for Another Day, Alecia Keyes for Falling Again and….” The final nominees were met with deaf ears as the group all held hands. All down the row you could see everyone’s heads hung low as they awaited the announcement of the winner. It really didn’t matter if they won or lost, it was an honor to be nominated and they had worked long and hard for this one.

“And the winner is…” here it comes they thought. The moment of truth. “NSYNC!” The guys all stood up and grabbed the girls. There was no one they would have rather spent this moment with than the five girls whose vision it was to make the album in the first place and they wanted them to all come up on stage with them. The girls at first protested but when they saw the looks in their faces they all stood up and took the hand of their partner and headed towards the stage.

“We are just so incredibly honored to be receiving this award tonight.” Chris began as they all stood around together still hugging each other, “Many of you know these five beautiful women who stand up here with us tonight. They are our wives and girlfriends. This album would never have been made had it not been for the vision that these women had. It was their idea to make this album and originally it was just supposed to be a gift for them. If there’s anyone we need to thank for this it is these people who stand with us tonight.” The crowd was on its feet as the guys accepted their award and headed off the stage holding the hands of the girls. They were all off to a great night of partying and celebrating the success that they just had. They had all realized a lifelong dream and they were now Grammy winners.

After a long night everyone headed back to their separate suites to go and sleep off the evening although no one was real tired. They were all running on adrenaline and excitement of everything that happened. Jay and Chris headed to their room after saying goodnight to everyone.

“Congratulations sweetie,” Jay said as she pulled Chris in for a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

“I could never have done this without you Jay. You make me the person I am. Thank you for being there with me tonight.” He said as he kissed her.

“There is no where I’d rather be than right here with you. And I’ll continue to be here for you for the rest of my life.” She said as they embraced.

When it was all said and done everyone was perfectly content in their lives. There would be a wedding coming soon for Joey and Kim. Elley and JC already had plans to have children and Cay and Lance had already started trying for another one. Justin and Chele would grow into their relationship and hopefully someday, end up just as happy as the other couples.

As for Chris and Janey their lives were perfect as perfect could be. They had each other to love. They had three beautiful little girls to care for and careers that they loved. Sure there would be the problems down the road with children getting sick and time away from each other for tours but they were bound and determined to make this work. They had a love that would span the test of time and friends that were an extended family of their own. They knew that even if they were apart that they were already there in each other’s hearts for they had decided that it was all or nothing for their relationship. They made the promise again to each other that they had made so many times before. They promised to be together for the rest of their lives. Now and Forever.

The End

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