[chapter twenty-five]
(Late that afternoon)
Caitlin and JC were sitting on the couch in Caitlin's family room, surveying
the damage the policemen had left in their wake. The house was filthy, and
the entire room was in disarray. Everyone had left the Love Shack about an
hour before, and Caitlin and JC had barely summoned the strength to flop down
on the couch, much less think about cleaning.
"I don't feel like cleaning this up. Maybe I'll just sell the house." Caitlin said jokingly.
"I'll help you clean…just give me a minute…" JC said, closing his eyes and resting his head on the back of the couch.
Caitlin smiled as his eyelids dropped shut, and took the opportunity to slide across and lean slightly on his side. He automatically wrapped his arms around her and rocked her gently from side to side, his eyes still closed.
"You okay?" JC whispered softly. "I mean…really?"
"I am. I'll have a couple of nasty bruises, but I'll have a hell of a story." Caitlin said lightly. "I'm more worried about you, frankly."
"Oh, I'm tough." JC said jokingly.
"I know you are, He-Man." Caitlin teased. "I don't know what I would have done if you and Chris…"
JC interrupted her. "Shh…don't think about that. We got the bad guy, he's in jail, and everything is okay."
Caitlin sat up so she could look into JC's eyes, which fluttered open at her movement. "Is it?" She asked quietly.
JC regarded Caitlin slowly, drinking in her features. He couldn't love her more than this moment, but he knew they had things to work out. Starting with the whole Chris fiasco. "Let's talk about…everything."
"Do you think I was unfaithful to you?" Caitlin asked point-blank.
JC sighed. "No, I don't think that. Chris and I had time to talk while we were on our way to you. He straightened me out a little bit."
"You aren't going to beat the hell out of him again?" Caitlin asked.
"He told you, huh?" JC asked, ashamed.
"Very mature, Chasez." Caitlin said, a smile hinting at her lips. "Caveman approach."
"I couldn't help it. The thought of him…and you…well, I wasn't thinking straight. But he and I talked, and we seem to have come to a understanding." JC replied.
"I fully intend to continue my friendship with Chris--is that going to bother you?" Caitlin asked.
"No." JC said. "No." He repeated honestly when he saw Caitlin's skeptical look. "I would be disappointed if it didn't. I mean that."
Caitlin sighed. "You said some pretty nasty things to me that morning at breakfast."
JC squeezed his eyes shut, trying to erase the image of him throwing money on the table at her. "I was so angry, Cait. You know I didn't mean what I said. I'm so sorry for acting that way."
"Apology accepted." Caitlin said after a long pause. "But you talk to me like that again, and you'll be sleeping alone for a loooong time." She gave him a wry half-smile.
JC smiled in reply, and pulled Caitlin close. "Agreed." He murmured, kissing her neck softly.
Caitlin mewed softly in reply. "I missed you." She said tenderly.
"I missed you too." JC said. "Every day you weren't on tour with us was so hard. The performances were great, but it's hard to parley an hour and a half a day into a full-rich day. You make every day full and rich." He said, his voice husky as he continued kissing her neck and shoulder.
"I wanted to be there, but…" Caitlin began. "I just couldn't. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to take on a life like that. But now I'm beginning to wonder if life here without you was even worse."
JC pulled back and looked into her eyes-eyes brimming with unshed tears. "You mean that?"
"I do." Caitlin whispered. "Told you I missed you, goober." She said, brushing away the tears as they fell down her cheeks. JC smudged on of them with his thumb, and kissed a few others.
"Come back with me." JC pleaded. "We still have tour dates left. Come with me…"
"What would I do?" Caitlin asked.
"Anything you want." JC replied honestly.
Caitlin regarded him for a long moment. Then she decided to change gears, leaving that conversation behind. "I have something else to tell you." Caitlin said. "It's a secret."
"What's that?" JC asked, brushing her hair back with his fingers.
"I've been working on a…well, side project." Caitlin said. "But I'm kind of…shy about it."
"Tell me." JC said gently.
"I've been…writing a book, actually." Caitlin said. "Chris and the roomies are the only ones that know, but no one has read it yet. It's probably terrible, but I've been getting really caught up in writing it."
"Can I read it?" JC asked.
"Maybe…" Caitlin said coyly.
"Tell me about it?" JC asked.
Caitlin smiled. "Well, The lead male role is a dashing young man with brown hair and sparkling blue eyes…"
(That evening)
"I'm having a very definite sense of déjà vu." Chris said, swirling the coffee around in his mug.
"Me too." Caitlin smiled, looking around the same coffee shop she and Chris had visiting the first time they hung out together. That felt like years ago, but then…the activities of the morning felt like years ago as well. Caitlin and Chris had decided to grab a quick cup of coffee while JC took a shower and went to bed early, exhausted from the last 24 hours. "I'm glad we're here again. I'm so glad you are okay after everything…"
Chris put up a hand. "Water under the bridge. I'm just glad you weren't hurt. This morning totally felt like something out of a movie!"
"I know!" Caitlin said. "Maybe a screenplay is in the works." She joked.
"Your next novel can be about this whole…thing." Chris suggested.
"If the first one is any good, that is." Caitlin reminded him.
"It will be." Chris said confidently.
"I told JC about it." Caitlin said, taking a sip of her coffee.
"What did he say?" Chris asked.
"He wants to read it." Caitlin said, grinning. "But he thought it was cool."
"If he gets to read it, I get to read it." Chris demanded.
"Okay, okay!" Caitlin agreed.
"So you and C are alright?" Chris inquired.
"Yeah, we're okay. We talked some stuff out, did a lot of quality snuggling, and that seems to solve all our problems." Caitlin said. "As long as you guys are okay."
"We are." Chris affirmed. "Everything is happy in Nsync world again."
Caitlin laughed at her friend. "Well, there's a chance that happy Nsync world might get turned upside down again. JC and I were talking and…"
(The following morning, back on tour)
"Dude! Johnny told us what happened!" Justin yelled as Chris and JC stumbled into the hotel room. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, we're okay." Chris said. "Being the superheroes we are, we took care of the baddies and put them in jail."
"The police helped a little." JC amended.
"We were worried." Lance said, standing up and clapping a hand onto Chris' shoulder.
"I wasn't." Joey said. "Just jealous you got to leave the hotel for a while." He grinned to show he was teasing, and affectionately slapped JC's back.
"Is Caitlin okay?" Justin asked. "She must have been pretty shaken up."
JC grinned. "Why don't you ask her yourself?" He said, gesturing to the door, where Caitlin was struggling with her suitcase.
"Caitlin!" The voices rang throughout the room as Joey, Lance and Justin engulfed her in a bear hug that pushed the air from her lungs.
"Hi guys!" She said happily, returning the hug.
"What are you doing here?" Joey demanded, smiling.
"To make a long story short…I'm…taking a sabbatical from work. Unpaid, but that's okay. I'm working on a…"
"Caitlin's writing a book. A damn good one, too." JC filled in, winking at her. "And she's going to spend the rest of the tour with us. And writing. When she isn't dancing at every single one of our shows." He grinned.
"You heard the man." Caitlin said, laughing. "Happily ever after, huh?"
"If you call touring with 5 oversized children, listening to the same songs every night, and living out of a suitcase in a different hotel every night happily ever after." Lance said reasonably.
Caitlin walked over and put her arms around JC, who returned the gesture. "I do. Trust me, I do."