Izzy opened her eyes slowly to adjust the bright lights in the room. Her body ached all over and for some reason she felt different. The past twenty-four hours came rushing back to her and she closed her eyes again trying to block it all out. A doctor came over to her,
“Ah Miss Mariani, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” Izzy’s mouth was dry as a bone so she just gave the doctor a hateful glare. “Ah, I see. Well you have been very popular lady here at the hospital, you have some very worried folks wondering about you.” Izzy managed to get out a few words,
“My baby?” She asked, the doctor grew sad and she knew,
“Miss Mariani, that fall you took ruptured the sack that surrounded your baby and you had a miscarriage. I’m very sorry.” Tears rolled down her face, the one thing she had left in her life was gone. Her baby was gone.
“Do you know what it was?” She asked quietly,
“A baby boy.” He said and Izzy nodded sadly. She stared at the wall not wanting to think or feel anymore. Everything she did, thought or felt hurt. “Um, Miss Mariani, would you like to see any of your friends? They’ve been in here off and on.” Izzy was just silent and stared at the wall and remembered what she had said to Joey. A sinking feeling hit her gut,
“J-Lance or Lucy, please.” The doctor nodded and went out into the hall; Lucy came in shortly afterward and came to her side.
“Hey honey.” She said taking her hand, “How are you doing?” Izzy looked at her big sister,
“Can I have some water?”
“Sure sweetie.” She replied and got her a small cup; Izzy drank the whole cup quickly.
“Thank you.” She whispered, “How long have I been here?”
“Since last night. It’s about three in the afternoon now. We’ve all been so worried, the doctor’s wouldn’t tell us anything except that you were stable and resting. They let us come in here and visit a little but not for long.”
“Joey and Josh?” She asked and Lucy smiled,
“They’re both here along with the rest of the guys. All of them are pretty upset about what happened, but I don’t know who’s beating themselves up more, Joey or JC. You should have seen their faces when you asked for either me or Lance.” She smirked, “I thought that they were gonna kill the doctor.” She joked and Izzy was silent for a little bit,
“The baby’s gone Lucy.”
“What?”
“I lost the baby, it’s gone, it was a boy. Just, like I’ve always wanted.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.” Lucy said stroking the hair out of her face.
“The one thing I had left in this world and it’s gone, too.” She looked at Lucy, “I have to tell them. Can you send in Joey?”
“It’s not too much for you today?”
“No, I want to tell them, please, but Joey first.”
“Okay.” She replied quietly and left the room. Joey came into the room cautiously.
“Joey,” Izzy said and tears began to drip down her cheeks, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean those things I said to you.” She cried and Joey went to her side and held her hand dropping kisses on her head,
“I don’t care about that, Izzy. All that I care about is that you’re okay.”
“Joey-”
“Shh, honey, it’s okay, everything’s going to be okay.”
“I lost the baby Joey! It’s gone and I feel so empty now.”
“Izzy honey, I don’t know what to say.”
“Neither do I, but you deserved to know.” She said and Joey ran a hand through his hair,
“This is all my fault Izzy, I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”
“No, Joey it’s all my fault! I’m the one that ran.”
“I was the one that chased you.”
“I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”
“I should have known when to back down from you.”
“Joey.”
“Izzy.” There was a silence between the friends; it was one of shared pain and blame. Joey brought her hand up to his lips,
“You know what I decided the other day?”
“What?”
“That some how we’re connected internally, like more than the bond of friendship.”
“It’s something deeper. But it’s not romantically deeper, just deeper in the connection.” She finished for him,
“Yeah exactly.” He said quietly and pulled her into a deep hug,
“Thank you Joey for always being there for me.”
“Thanks for always being there for me, princess.” He said and then he stood back up still holding her hand.
“Joey are all the guys okay? I mean with each other?” She asked,
“Me and C?” He asked and she nodded,
“Everything’s fine and we worked out our differences, we always do.” He said smiling, “Do you want to see him?”
“Yes, I think I do. Does he was to see me?”
“More than anything.”
“Okay.” She said and Joey squeezed her hand one more time before leaving the room. JC came in the room and slowly approached Izzy.
“Hey baby.” He greeted her softly and she smiled,
“Hi.” JC pulled up a chair next to her,
“Can I talk to you, like I talk and you just listen. Would that be okay? I just have a ton of things I want to say to you.” Izzy simply nodded and JC took a deep breath, “Okay, first off I want to say I’m sorry about how I reacted the other night. I was just irrational and I wasn’t thinking straight. I mean once I thought everything through, I realized that I was wrong. I mean who cares if Joey’s the father of the baby, that doesn’t mean that I can’t be a father to the baby, too.”
“Josh-”
“Shh, baby, let me talk.” He said placing a finger on her lips, “I love you very much and I know that I’ve hurt you badly, especially the other day. But I wanted to let you know that I decided this all before your accident, in fact I was going to find you and tell you all of this when I found you arguing with Joey in the hall.”
“Josh, please, let me say something.”
“What honey?”
“There’s no baby.”
“Huh?”
“I lost the baby when I fell down the stairs. I’m not having Joey’s baby.”
“Oh, Izzy.” He looked down and Izzy saw a tear slip down his face. “How are you doing?” He asked gently and she took a deep breath,
“I don’t know, I feel bad.”
“Well that’s to be expected-”
“No, I feel bad because I think I wished this to happen.” She whispered,
“Baby, it was an accident. Me and Joey saw it happen, you couldn’t stop yourself from falling and neither could we.” She looked at him and brought his hand up to her lips,
“Do you know how good you make me feel?” She said and tears began slipping down her cheeks,
“Probably as good as you make me feel.” He smiled at her and leaned over kissing her forehead, “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be, you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I lied to you.”
“No when it mattered and not to my face. I asked you about it and you told me the truth. That’s all I’ll ever ask. I’m sorry for how I reacted-”
“Shh, how about we call it even and forgive each other?” He caressed her face,
“That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard. I love you.” He leaned over and captured her lips,
“I love you too.” She smiled at him and he pulled her to him gently,
“I’ve missed you so much.”
“I have too.” She whispered, “I thought I had lost you.”
“I thought I had lost you too.” He whispered back,
“You couldn’t lose me even if you tried.”
“I don’t plan on doing so, ever.” He paused for a minute and went to say something when there was a knock on the door. JC turned to the door and Lucy popped her head in,
“Sorry to interrupt but there’s someone here who really wants to see you Iz.”
“Who?” JC said a bit pissed off that his time with Izzy was being interrupted. He didn’t think he could leave her side again.
“Mr. Chasez, you will not take that tone of voice with me. I’m here to see my little sister and don’t think that you are going to stop me!” Gina said busting into the room around Lucy and Izzy’s face immediately brighten,
“Gina-bina?”
“In the flesh, Izzy-bizzy” She grinned and walked into the room,
“What are you doing here?” Izzy asked,
“You’re my sister.” She stated, “I think it’s obvious enough.” Izzy squeezed JC’s hand and looked up at him,
“Jace you remember Gina right?”
“With a mouth like that how could I forget?” He smirked and stood up to shake Gina’s hand,
“Who am I to fight genetics?” She shrugged and shook his hand, “Hey Jace, it’s nice to see you again. It’s been awhile.”
“Yeah it has, nice to see you too Gina.” JC turned to Izzy, “I’ll leave you two alone, call me if you need me.”
“Okay.” He leaned down and kissed her lightly before leaving the room. Gina sat down next to her,
“Girl, that boy is one fine piece of ass.” She laughed and Izzy laughed for the first time in a couple of days,
“He definitely is. It should be illegal.”
“Damn straight, if I had known that, that scrawny little twerp that you hung out with was going to turn out into THAT, I might have given you a run for your money.”
“Well I fell in love with his heart first. Him being fucking hot and having the body of a God is just a bonus.” She giggled, “Thanks for coming, you didn’t have too.”
“Izzy, you dropped Nsync to come to my rescue and saved my life. It wasn’t a choice, I needed to be here for you. That’s what family is for.”
“Thank you.”
“How are you doing?”
“As good as can be expected. Everything hurts and I mean everything, but I’m gonna get better, I’ve been through worse.”
“Yeah, I know.” Gina became really quiet and Izzy searched her face,
“What?” She asked quietly,
“You didn’t do it on purpose did you?”
“Huh?”
“Fall down the stairs?” She asked quietly,
“You didn’t hear the story?” Gina shrugged her shoulders and looked up at her,
“All I know is that you fell down a flight of stairs.”
“I was kind of pushed.”
“PUSHED? BY WHO?”
“Fans, they didn’t mean to but it happened. Why would you think that I fell down on purpose?” Gina just stared at Izzy and she knew, “Gina, don’t. I’m not like that anymore.”
“I know, I know, it’s just sometimes I think if someone pushed you too far, you would…”
“No, I won’t.”
“Okay.” She smiled up at her little sister, “So tell me about how you and your boy got together…”