THE MUSIC NEVER
ENDS
©Mirandagk@aol.com
CHAPTER 16
"Well I was just in town and wanted to drop by and say hello."
"How'd you find out where I lived?"
"I have my ways." JC said as he tried to look past the door at her.
"Did Jerry tell you?"
"No, no. He didn't me tell me anything. I asked around after Joey saw you in the shop across the street." He said trying to hand her the Danishes.
"You guys are like roaches. When I see one of you, I always know there are four more close behind somewhere."
"Are we going to keep talking between the door or are you going to invite me inside." he smiled dangling the bag of Danishes in front of her face.
"Well you just came to say hello. So hello, and goodbye."
Laura grabbed the pastries and went to shut the door but JC put his hand up, "Wait. Can I please come in? I really need to talk to you about something."
"About what?"
JC thought for a moment and then said, "The song...I need to explain this to you so that there are no misunderstandings later on."
Laura stood there and looked at him for a minute before shutting the door. JC stood on the other side waiting to hear the chain being removed, but instead he heard silence. A few moments later, his eyes lit up when he heard the chain and the door sliding open just a crack. He pushed the door slowly and looked around for Laura. He walked in and shut it behind him. He looked to his left and noticed two bar stools up against the other side of the kitchen counter. He saw Laura washing off some lettuce and tomatoes in the sink and went to sit down on a nearby stool. Laura moved up closer to the sink and continued to wash dishes.
"It's all my fault really. I dug it out of the trash that day...in the studio." JC hesitated as he thought back. "He accidentally got a hold of it when I went to take in my release forms for the video. I was working on it while I was waiting and I must have mixed it in with the forms by accident."
Laura rolled her eyes and continued to wash and separate the lettuce as JC tried to explain his side. He noticed that she seemed nervous. Her hands were shaky as she started to cut veggies and she barely moved from the spot she was in. She just continued to cut and never responded to anything he said. The only thing that could be heard in the apartment was the knife as it hit the cutting board.
"Why are you so quiet? You'd be down my throat by now." he smiled.
Laura looked past JC and out the patio window. He turned around to see what she was looking at. When he looked back towards Laura, her back was turned to him and she was looking in the fridge.
"Will you please talk to me?"
Laura never turned around. JC got up from his chair and made his way around the counter into the kitchen. She turned her body sideways and started looking at the soda's that were sitting in the door of the refrigerator. He walked up behind her and begged, "Laura, say something...Anything. You're scaring me with this silence."
Laura slowly turned around and JC's face turned completely white. He took a few steps back and leaned against the counter to keep from falling to the floor. "You're...." He said as he starred down at her protruding abdomen.
"Pregnant?" Laura asked as she watched JC's reaction.
"Is it...Is it..."
Laura looked up towards the ceiling in shock as she let her jaw fall open in disbelief that he would even think to ask her such a question. She pushed past him and walked over the her front door and opened it. "I think it's time for you to go."
"Wait, wait, wait...I'm sorry. It's just." JC took deep breaths before finishing, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Laura slammed the door shut. "Well lets see..." she walked over to the couch and sat down. "I called you about ten times. I left messages for you and received no call back. I even resorted to sending you a letter, which was returned to me as refused...I got the point that you didn't want to have anything to do with me after that, JC."
"I doubt you ever called. I never received your messages."
"Well I figured the messages I gave to Rachel would have slipped through the cracks, but I never would have thought Laticia would disregard my calls...Unless you told her to!"
JC paced the room. He glanced over at Laura through the corner of his eye and he tried to make sense of it all.
"Can you please stop pacing? It's making me nauseous." Laura complained.
JC went and sat down on the couch next to her. Laura tried to wiggle over to the far end to get away from him. "How far along are you?"
"Just about 6 months now." Laura replied as she shifted a pillow that was behind her back.
JC rubbed his forehead, "Why didn't you call one of the guys to get in touch with me about this?" The more he thought about it, the more pissed he became. It felt like he was living out the past all over again.
"I wasn't going to chase you down. When my letter was returned 'refused' I took that as my cue to not bother you anymore. I didn't want anyone else involved. This is between you and me."
The anger inside him was bubbling to the surface, struggling to get out. "I've seen you more than three times in the past six months, Laura. You had plenty of opportunities to tell me!"
"I didn't have intentions of continuing the pregnancy." she blurted out.
JC whipped his head around to look her in the eye. "What?!"
"Did I stutter? I was trying to tell you that night at the Pussycat Dolls show. But when I heard Nikky calling for his 'Da Da', I didn't want to put you in a difficult position again. You were with your new family...You seemed happy. I didn't want that to change."
"So you figured you would run off and disappear out of sight forever while you raised that baby?"
"No...I wasn't going to have 'that baby.'" she mocked.
JC let his head fall into his hands. "An abortion? Wow...That says a lot about how much you cared for me."
"You know what...Let's not get into all that fuckin shit about how people feel. I'm sure to puke if you do." Laura got up from the couch and made her way over to the table to finish preparing the box for FedEx. "I don't want anything from you JC. I don't want to have anything to do with you from this point on."
"Well that's going to be impossible, Laura."
"Why?"
"Because that is my child you are carrying. We're going to have to deal with each other for at least the next 18 years."
"No. I don't want that."
"What about what he or she wants?" JC asked as he pointed to her belly.
"I'm sure the baby will agree with me that its not fair that they won't be the one who gets most of your time and affection. I'd rather not have you in his or her life at all, then just every other weekend. And judging by everything you have done since you found out Nikky was your son, I'm sure you'd agree with me. So all you have to do now is get up and walk out that door and never look back."
"Who are you?" JC asked in disbelief.
"The same person, I've always been." Laura said as she placed the box on the table near the front door. She walked back into the living room and started to fold a basket of clothes that had been sitting near the hallway to the bedrooms.
"I guess I am starting to see your true colors now. It was hard to see the real you through all that bullshit you were feeding me." JC commented.
Laura continued to fold clothes and sucked in her teeth at everything he was saying. But she did not fight back. JC walked over next to her and lowly talked into her ear, "I wonder if that was your plan the entire time. You and all your lies and deceit. You probably talked Rachel into going with Jerry."
Laura turned towards him and brought her hand up and smacked him across his face as hard as she could. The sound of her palm hitting his face seemed to echo throughout the apartment. "If turning me into the villain is what helps you sleep with her at night, then so be it."
"So you're not denying anything? Not going to deny that you lied to me...Just like you did a few months ago when I asked was there something I needed to know."
"I could stand here for hours and try to prove that I never lied to you. I didn't know Rachel was with Jerry until you came over to my house, shaking and sobbing when you caught them together. I didn't know she was seeing him again behind your back until you came and told me. I found out she was pregnant when Jerry blurted it out to you during an argument after court. She told me that she was pretty sure the baby was Jerry's. She begged me to keep it to myself, and I did...If you would have asked me, I most likely would have told you. But you never questioned it. And I was saved from having to see you hurt all over again." Laura threw the shirt that she had been folding back down into the basket and crossed her arms before looking up at him. "But I'm just wasting my breath here. You are going to believe what you want to believe. And I don't like being called a liar in my own home." Laura walked over to the front door and opened it for him. "Now, get the fuck out before I call security to remove you."
"Laura, we need to work this out. If not for us but for the baby." JC walked over to her and tried to touch her stomach. Laura pushed his hand away and looked out into the hallway so as not to make eye contact with him. Tears were falling down her cheeks.
"We have squash it all and think about this instead of our own problems." he pointed out as he touched the top of her stomach.
"I don't want you here. Just go, please." Laura begged as she finally looked up at him. JC reflexively placed his thumbs on her cheeks to wipe her tears.
"I want to be here. I wouldn't have went through all this trouble if I didn't. It's like something was pulling me here. And now I know why. We've gotta deal with this right now."
"I'm dealing with this everyday on my own. And that's how I want it from now on. You don't trust me. You think I'm full of shit all of a sudden. I don't want my child growing up discovering that daddy secretly hated mommy."
"I don't hate you."
"Then what do you feel, JC?"
"I care." JC tried to hug her. He got one arm around her and Laura momentarily let her head rest on his chest, before pushing him away. JC tried again to put his arms around her. But Laura started pushing him. "Please get out...Get out!" she started to raise her voice, but JC continued to try and console her. "Just get out!!" she yelled.
The woman across the hall opened her front door to see what was going on. JC knew that was his cue to leave before someone called security. "Okay. I'll go. But just know that this isn't the end."
As soon as JC stepped out the door, Laura slammed it in his face and screamed through the walls, "It never began, asshole!!!"
JC went to yell back at her through the door, but grew silent when her heard her loud sobs. He saw her shadow through the crack of the bottom of the door and noticed that she had slid down to the floor crying to herself. He touched the door and looked up towards the heavens and prayed that things would become more clear soon before heading back downstairs.
Laura sat on the floor and cried aloud. The woman across the hall lightly tapped on the door and asked if she were okay. She struggled to get up and opened the door slowly. She was just about to utter that she would be fine until she doubled over in pain holding her stomach. "No. I think there is something wrong."
CHAPTER 17
Laura doubled over in pain again. Her neighbor ran and called for an ambulance. The pain was excruciating. Laura held onto her stomach trying to relieve some of the pain, but it was too much to bear. It felt like knifes were being plunged into her gut. A loud blood curdling scream could be heard throughout the halls of the apartment complex. The neighbors next door came rushing out to see what was going on.
JC banged his fists against the steering column of the rental car and cursed to himself. "You fuckin' idiot!"
He took a deep breath and leaned his elbow against the window frame of the car and let his head fall into his hand before running his fingers through his hair to think. He then pounded his fist into the steering column again. This routine went on for about 3 more minutes until he finally started the car.
As he was pulling off he could see an ambulance far in the distance coming down the street. He missed the light and sat there waiting on it to turn green. He silently watched as the ambulance went through the light. He turned his head in curiosity to see where it was headed. He looked back at the light to see if it had turned green yet. He then looked into his rear view mirror and saw that the ambulance had pulled up the front doors of Laura's apartment complex.
"Oh shit..." he said to himself as he watched the two EMT's get out of the ambulance. One carrying bags to the back of the vehicle while the other pulled out a stretcher. He prayed to himself that they weren't going into her building, but when he saw the man from the front desk rushing outside to help them in, he knew he needed to find out what was going on.
JC ran through the light and made an illegal u-turn and raced back down the road towards Laura's building. He threw the car into park and raced to the front doors. He pressed the button on the elevator and waited impatiently. He noticed it was still going up. He crossed his fingers hoping that it wouldn't stop on the ninth floor. When it did, JC let his head fall back as he yelled, "Oh God. Please. No!"
He ran to the stairway and dashed up nine flights. He ran down the hallway to the crowd that had gathered in front of Laura's door. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up when he heard her screaming. He pushed his way through the small crowd of neighbors and tried to gain entry into the apartment to see about Laura. A security guard pushed him back.
"Laura!! Is she okay?"
"Please, sir. You are going to have to stand back." the guard insisted.
"What's going on? Laura!! That's my friend in there! Laura!" he yelled trying to again, push his way through past the guard.
An EMT asked the guard to make a path so they could get to the elevator. He had heard JC and said, "Sir, We are going to be taking her to the hospital. You can follow us there, but right now we need to get her out of here."
"Is the baby ok?"
"That's what we're tying to find out, Sir. Please stand back and make room for the stretcher." he announced to the JC as well as onlookers.
As they were wheeling Laura out into the hallway on the stretcher, JC noticed that she was holding onto her stomach and moving her head from side to side in pain. Her yells were muffled by the oxygen mask on her face, and tears were streaming down her face. JC walked along with the stretcher and tried to get Laura's attention. "Laura? Sweetie, I'm right here. I'm right here."
Laura lifted her hand towards JC. He reflexively went to hold it, but was jolted when she pushed it away and waved her hand signaling him to leave. Stunned JC slowed down in his pursuit to keep up with the stretcher and watched as it disappeared into the elevator. He then took the stairs back down and followed the ambulance to the hospital.
JC's head was in his hands as he impatiently waited for some word from a doctor or nurse about Laura's condition. His eyes were blood shot from crying and his face was pale. He paced the room over and over again getting jumpy each time someone walked in.
Two hours had gone by and JC found himself laying on a couch watching the news. His eyes were heavy and he started to drift in and out of sleep.
"Mr. Chasez? Sir?"
JC opened his eyes quickly and noticed a nurse was lightly tapping him on the shoulder. He sat up and tried to adjust his eyes.
"Ms. Charles has been moved into a private room now."
"Is she okay?"
"Yes. She will be fine. She is still sedated from the medication, but you are welcome to see her."
"Is the baby okay?"
"You will have to speak to the doctor about that. Since you aren't in her immediate family, I don't know if he will give you that information, but when I spoke to her mother over the phone, she gave consent for you to be updated on her condition." she stated as she led the way to Laura's room.
The room was very dim and JC could hear sounds of various machines. One was a beeping noise that sounded off about every ten seconds. The other was a constant thumping sound.
"What's that noise?"
"Oh, that's just the baby's heart beat. They are monitoring it."
"Is it suppose to be that fast?"
"Yes. If it were slower, then we would be worried." the nurse replied as she checked the reading of a machine and wrote it down on a clipboard.
JC turned and looked past the curtains towards Laura. He stood at the end of her bed as the nurse pushed back the curtain to gain access to the other side of the bed. He lightly touched her foot which was covered by a thin off white blanket. Tears started to fill his eyes when he noticed the small oxygen tube under her nose and three different IV's in her arms along with various cords that disappeared under the blanket where her stomach was protruding out. He slowly walked up towards the head of the bed and placed his hand just over her belly. It took everything in his being to stop his hand from trembling before he lightly let it rest on her stomach.
JC looked towards Laura face and could see she was in a deep sleep. He moved a few strands of hair from her face and tucked them behind her ear before letting the back of his hand slide down her cheek. "God, Laura...This is all my fault..." he sobbed.
"She is under a lot of medication so she might not wake up or respond."
JC was startled by the sudden presence of another nurse who had entered the room. JC moved a nearby chair up next to Laura's bed and sat down. He leaned forward and let his chin rest on the edge of the mattress as he looked up at her. He picked up her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. The nurse stood on the other side of the bed and took her blood pressure.
"Hey Donna. How is she doing?"
"Her blood pressure was a little high before. But it's at 130 over 80."
"Good. Good." the doctor said as he looked down at her chart. He looked up and could see JC sitting by her side. "You must be Mr. Chasez."
JC looked over at the doctor and wiped the tears from his eyes before getting up to shake his hand. "I'm doctor Phelps. My daughter has you plastered all over her walls at home."
"Nice to meet you. Is she going to be okay?" he asked as he looked back towards Laura.
"We're still waiting on some test results to come back. We don't know if the pain she is having is due simply to stress or if its Preeclampsia."
"What is Pre...clampsia?"
"Pre-eclampsia is an illness that occurs most often times during pregnancy or immediately after delivery and can affect the mother and the baby. It is quite common, affecting about one in every 10 pregnancies. Woman are at a high risk if it is their first pregnancy or if they are pregnant for the first time by a new partner."
"What is the cause of it?"
"There are differing opinions on the cause, so for the most part it's unknown. But when a woman has it, she develops problems in her circulation, which normally show up as high blood pressure, protein in her urine, swelling, and sharp abdominal pains. For most woman the illness remains mild. But in some cases it becomes serious and affects other parts of the body, such as the liver, brain, lungs or blood clotting system. It can get worse very quickly - and it can be dangerous."
"What could happen to her or the baby if she does in fact have that?"
"The baby may grow slowly or have other problems because he or she can't get enough food or oxygen from the placenta."
JC placed his hand on his head and the other on his hip and began to pace to room.
"Has Ms. Charles been having severe headaches? Rapid heartbeat? Dizziness? Excessive nausea? Ringing or buzzing on her ears? Things of that nature?"
"I really wouldn't know. I haven't seen her in a long time."
"I'm waiting on her doctor to return our page. I was hoping to get as much info as I could from you." the doctor said as he felt around her stomach and applied pressure in different areas. "Do you know if she has been under a lot of stress lately?"
JC watched him carefully and said, "Well, we're both in the same business. And it can get pretty stressful. She's always working, constantly on a deadline from one project to the next. She recently moved here from Florida."
"I'm hoping it's just a simple case of stress. The test results should be back in the next couple hours, so we'll know then."
"This is all my fault."
"Why do you say that?"
JC went and sat down on the chair, letting his head fall into his hands. "We argued right before she was brought here."
"What did you argue about?"
JC didn't want to tell him. "We used to be really close. But before she moved, we were no longer getting along. I was in town with my fiance and a friend of mine bumped into her. I wanted to see how she was doing. She wasn't happy to see me."
The doctor knew there was more to the story, but knew it wasn't his business to pry. "It's not your fault. You couldn't have known that this was going to happen. Let's just hope that all this is just a stressful reaction. I can treat things like that, but Pre-eclampsia is something that really can't be helped."
With that, the doctor finished checking her chart and left JC and Laura alone. JC resumed his position in the chair next to her bed. He snaked his fingers lightly up and down her hand. "I'm just the biggest asshole known to man, Laura. I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm so sorry, baby."
A couple hours later, JC awoke to the sound of a new noise. It wasn't like any of the other machines that had been beeping, but it was rather a buzzing with a tone that was not pleasing to the hear. He looked over and noticed Laura was still sleeping. A nurse came in and went straight to the machine that was causing all the noise.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes, everything is fine. I just need to replace her fluids with a new bag. This one is almost empty."
JC's stomach was rumbling and growling. The nurse looked over at him and smiled. "You should go down the cafeteria and grab something to eat. She isn't going anywhere."
JC took her advice and ran down to the cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee and a muffin. When he was walking down the hall towards Laura's room, he could hear the nurse talking to another female. "...He's been here since you were brought in. He's really worried."
As he rounded the corner he could see Laura sitting up and looking over at the nurse while she checked her blood pressure. He lightly knocked on the door to get her attention. She slightly turned her head to see who it was. The nurse smiled and looked back down at her watch.
JC walked into the room slowly and stood at the foot of Laura's bed and just starred at her nervously. She glared back at him before directing her attention back towards the nurse who asked, "Are you still having pains?"
"No. Right now it just feels like I have a cramp in my side."
"That's good. That feeling will go away over the next couple hours. I'm going to go and get Dr. Phelps so he can check you out. I should be back shortly."
Laura thanked her. She and JC were silent as they watched the nurse leave the room and close the door. Laura didn't speak. She turned over on her side with her back towards JC.
"I'm not going to stay." he said. "The doctor said this may be a stress reaction and I'm sure my being here is causing just that. I just needed to know you were okay."
"Well we're fine, JC. You can go back to your family now."
"Laura..." JC wanted to argue but knew it wouldn't be any helpful to the situation. "I'm going to go. But when you are well enough we need to sit down and discuss what's going to happen after you have the baby. Because I want to be apart of his or her life. I swear to you that I had no idea that you called or wrote me about this. As God is my witness, I was not ignoring you Laura. I don't think I could, even if I tried…" He waited for her to say something…Anything. "...And I don't care if you believe me or not, but I really want to be apart of yours...I would love for us to be friends again. And I would hope you do too."
Laura didn't respond. She just looked towards the window. Tears were forming in her eyes.
"I better get going. Hopefully I will talk to you soon?"JC lingered for an answer but knew it was pointless. He started towards the door and suddenly stopped short of opening it. "You had asked me earlier why I showed up at your apartment the way I did...Well I lied about needing to talk to you about that song...The real reason I had to see you was because..." JC took a deep breath and looked back towards Laura whose back was still turned to him. With a quiver in his voice, he said "Somewhere along the way, I think you became home to me...And today I just felt a little homesick."
"Why does he always do this?!" she thought to herself. "One minute he is a complete and utter asshole and then the next…" She wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked back to respond, but JC had already left the room.
CHAPTER 18
Mrs. Chasez waited patiently outside her son's front door. She could hear him speaking to someone on the phone and smiled at him when he opened it for her and motioned for her come inside.
"Well I really need to speak to Attorney Harper as soon as possible, so an appointment next week just won't do. Is there anything else any sooner than that? I don't care how early or how late it is."
Concern dawned across Karen's face as she watched her son walk into the living room with the phone stuck to his ear. She could hear the stress in his voice and watched him hang up the phone, throwing it down on the couch.
After taking a deep breath he looked over at his mother and said, "Hey."
"Everything okay? You guys don't have to go back into court again do you?"
"No. It's nothing like that."
"What is it then?" she asked as she took a seat on the couch. She reached down and picked up Nikky who was on the floor playing with some toys and placed him on her lap.
"Just when I think that things are getting better, they go and get ten times worse." JC looked over at his mother and noticed she seemed extremely worried. "Well, before I get into all that...How are you, Mom?"
The two of them sat and talked briefly about how the rest of the family was doing. Mrs. Chasez watched her son as he played with Nikki and still managed to keep his attention focused on what she was saying
.
Karen looked around the area and asked, "Where's Rachel?"
"Out and about with that new friend of hers."
"Oh. How was your trip to Chicago?"
"Very eye opening." JC mumbled as he pulled a toy car out of Nikki's mouth.
"And what exactly does that mean? You didn't have fun?"
"Well, me and Joe went over to that car show, which was pretty cool. Rachel was off doing her own thing...as usual. But the thing that sticks out the most was when Joey bumped into Laura."
"Laura?"
"Yeah."
"Was she in town for the car show too?"
"No."
"Recording?" Karen was getting tired of guessing.
"No...She lives there."
Karen was shocked, "What?! Why Chicago?"
"I really don't know."
"Did you get to see her too?"
"Not initially...You know when you get a certain feeling in the pit of your stomach pushing you to do something?"
"Yeah."
"Well, something was pushing me to see her."
His mother couldn't stand it when he danced around a conversation. She just wanted him to tell her the entire story already, but he always had to add the dramatics. "And I am assuming that you finally did?"
"Yea."
"And? What happened?"
"She's in the hospital."
"What?! Okay...Where did this story suddenly take a sharp turn? What happened? Is she okay?"
"When I left she was doing better."
"What was wrong?"
"Probably too much stress." He looked up at his mother and slowly said, "She's pregnant, Ma."
Karen's mouth dropped wide open. "Holy shit!" she quickly covered her mouth remembering that the baby was still in the room. "What are you going to do?" she whispered.
JC hardly heard his mother curse around him or anyone else for that matter. It sounded so strange coming from her lips and he couldn't help but slightly grin. He got up off the floor and started cleaning up, "She doesn't want me around. I don't even think I want me around."
"I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear you say that. What does Rachel think about all this?"
"I haven't told her yet."
"Well that should've been the first thing you did. She is going to be your wife very soon. You can't keep secrets from her. You should have learned that by now."
"I'm going to tell her. I just need to find out what my options are before we discuss this together...That's why the emergency meeting with my lawyer."
"Does anyone else know?"
"No. So please don't say anything just yet to dad or anyone else."
"I won't."
The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon together. Mrs. Chasez did her best to take her son's mind off of current events in his life before she headed back home. JC would have a meeting with his lawyer in a few days and she knew he was going to have to make a huge decision.
~~~~~~~~~
"Get off my back, Jerry! I'm pulling into the parking lot now." JC said before flipping down the screen of his cell phone.
Once he was upstairs he scurried into Jerry's office. "Why the hell are you so late?" Jerry asked.
"I had another appointment earlier. It was longer than expected."
"Well, have a seat." Jerry motioned as he sat down at his desk and leafed through some documents. "I spoke to Laura today."
"She's not coming to meeting?"
"No. She says she can't make it. Medical reasons or something." he shook his head.
"Oh." JC pretended to not know anything. Jerry was standing in the corner at his small machine, running off copies. "She faxed over a list of what she will and won't agree upon as far as this duet goes."
"Which is?"
Jerry handed him a copy of the hand written sheet. "All footage of full body shots must be edited to only show the shoulder up. Why? I don't know, but whatever..." Jerry continued to read through the list. " She also states that she will only be spending a week here to get all this done. Recording, editing, production, video, taped interviews, etc. No outside press or photographers. Just our in house people. She wrote down a few names for us as well."
"And you're agreeing to her terms?" JC asked in disbelief.
"Yes. The big boys upstairs have approved it. They wanted it like yesterday. We're trying to play off of your popularity in the media right now. With all the rumors back and forth about what is going on behind the scenes, we thought this duet enhanced CD footage would sell like hot cakes."
"Anything to make money." he said as he shook his head.
"Yep. And you are on the 'make check payable to' list, so don't act all self righteous with me, JC." Jerry rolled his eyes.
Rather than start an argument with Jerry, JC decided to move on, "When do we start recording?"
"Next week."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. She says she needs to get all this done before she starts a new project. She wouldn't give details, but the sooner the better is fine with us."
JC thought about Laura's pregnancy and how people might react. "Wow. I would have thought she'd wait till..."
"Wait till when?" Jerry asked.
"Nothing."
"Well call me with the actual date that we will be in the studio and I'll be there."
"Great."
Once the meeting was over JC headed home. The house was pretty quiet. He called out to Rachel, but there was no answer. As he closed the fridge he noticed the usual sheet of paper with messages on it. He went to sit down at the table with the newspaper and was startled by someone walking in through his back door.
"I didn't mean to startle you, JC."
"It's ok, Laticia."
Laticia leaned down under the sink and placed the bucket and gloves back in their place. "I just finished cleaning off the back patio area. Is there anything else you need done before I head out for the day?"
"Nope. Thanks though."
"No problem. I'll see ya tomorrow." she said before heading out of the kitchen to leave. JC looked over at messages on the fridge and a light went off in his head. "Hey Laticia?" he called after her.
"Yes?"
"Do you remember ever taking messages from Laura awhile back?"
"Yes. That was months ago though. There were quite a few. I posted them on the refrigerator like I usually do. Laura seemed urgent to speak with you and I even asked Rachel if you had received them and she said you did. Is there something wrong?"
"Oh, no no no. It's okay. I was just double checking something. That's all I wanted to know. I'll see ya tomorrow."
"Okay."
JC had never remembered getting any messages off the fridge during that time. He didn't even recall seeing any messages posted there."
When Rachel returned home a few hours later, she struggled with the door. She had Nikki in one arm. His diaper bags in another. As well as five large clothing store bags. She looked around and noticed the house was quiet, but had seen JC's car was in the driveway. She called out to him, but there was no answer. She figured he must have went out with one of the guys. She got Nikki ready for bed and put him down for bed and decided to take a hot bath before settling in for the night. When she reached the bedroom she saw JC lying across the bed, seemingly fast asleep. She smiled at her fiance and just basked in how peaceful he looked, before heading towards the bathroom to run her bath water.
"We need to talk." JC spoke clearly.
"Jesus! I thought you were asleep." Rachel yelled in surprise. "What do we need to talk about?"
"Sit down." he said as he lifted his body up off the mattress to face her.
She sat next to him on the bed and started rubbing his thigh. "What's up, babe?"
JC removed her hand and looked her straight in the eye. Her pulse was racing with fear.
"A few months ago, Laura called here and left me a few messages. You know anything about that?"