Issey rubbed her hands together eagerly, "I can't believe how long it's been since I've had clam chowder."

"You are aware chowder is available pretty much everywhere in this country right? Also? You know we're sitting at a picnic table that is…" he lifted his arm slowly to emphasize his point, "sticky with God knows what."

She grinned at him, "You, my sweet love, are moments away from tasting some of the greatest fried lobster and fresh steamers you will ever have. Soon you will have no time to be spouting off about things you know not of, you will be straight up swooning with the joy of sated tasted buds. I just wish I could have a nice Sam's Summer Ale with the steamers."

Chris raised his brows "Sticky tables."

"Sticky with years of delicious. I'm going to the ladies room. If they call our number grab our clams." She handed him a wooden lobster with the number 14 on it.

When she disappeared behind a door cleverly marked "Gulls" Chris turned to Darren. "What is your problem?"

It took a minute for Darren to realize Chris was talking to him, "Sorry, what?"

"It's been like having the grim reaper walking behind us since the Oncologists. Did feeling the lump really freak you out that much?"

"Oh. No. Did you look this stuff up at all?"

"Of course I did, why?"

Darren cast a glance toward the door to make sure Issey wasn't on her way, "I was looking at the core biopsy stuff and they said that if it was mostly liquid or whatever that came out and that made the lump smaller it was probably not cancer but if it was tissue that came out that was probably not such good news."

"Okay, but you couldn't really tell what came out, it's not like it was obvious."

"I just know I saw tissue, it wasn't all fluid. I kept staring and praying for no solids."

Number 14 was called and Chris unfolded his long legs from under the table. "We'll ask her primary care doc when we get there later but honestly, if you could tell just by looking it wouldn't take a week to get answers. Try to just relax right now and let her enjoy this. I haven't seen her excited about food, or much of anything else lately."

Chris was coming back with a huge orange cafeteria style tray covered in seafood when Issey stepped out of the 'Gulls' room. It made her laugh to see him here. Markey's was a favorite beach stop for her and became THE place to pregame before concerts at the nearby concert hall. They didn't serve alcohol but you could bring in your own. In the middle of the day on a Monday it was fairly quiet but later in the day or on a weekend you'd wait nearly an hour for some fried clams. She'd seen people here that looked like they didn't have homes to go to at night sitting right next to state senators opening a hundred dollar bottle of wine to drink with their lobster rolls. Seeing her two boys in a place that felt so much like home to her was even stranger than in her own apartment.

Much to everyone's surprise she made it almost completely through the food without feeling sick and when she did finally sit back with her hand on her stomach Issey claimed it was due to over eating and not pregnancy.

They were walking to her car when a scream pierced the air followed quickly by "I TOLD you it was him, OHMYGODDARREN!" Three girls (one Issey was certain had been behind the counter when they'd ordered) practically fell out of a car and came charging in their direction. Chris's arm shot around Issey's waist, quickly steering her to her car and away from the girls. Darren went straight to them, essentially pulling them in the opposite direction of Chris and Issey.

"Geez, you guys are like the Secret Service." She said as she dropped into the passenger seat of her own car.

"He's good at this, let him deal with them. You don't need the fan thing today."

"The fan thing?" She'd never been bothered by the fans, they never even noticed her. Why were the boys so quick to move her away from them today?

"Y'know, the whole, what are you guys doing in Boston, aren't you guys supposed to be somewhere else and all of that. They don't need to know. Darren will charm them, do the whole picture and autograph thing and we'll be on our way."

"It would probably have been faster to let me do it. They'll want

more from him than they would from me, they don't even know me."

"Still, better to let him do it. You're off duty today."

She glanced at him with suspicion, "Okay, what's going on?"

"What are you talking about? Look, he's coming, he's done." His tone

was even but she didn't miss the lightening quick trepidation in his

eyes.

Darren retreated to the car and shut the door, addressing Chris in the

drivers seat as he did, "We're good to go."

Chris backed out of the space, Darren waving to the girls out the back window.

Issey took out her phone and started hitting buttons.

Issey: wtf is up?

Darren: ?

Issey: Chris is weird.

Darren: !

Issey: stop it

Darren: I don't know what we're talking about

Issey: Why did you both stop me from talking to those girls?

Darren: again….?

Issey: forget it.

He could act like nothing was going on but she knew better. Even something as simple as the way he'd gotten into the car after talking to the girls felt off. He didn't talk about them, who they were, how they knew they were there, if they were planning on coming to the show in a few weeks, all things Darren would normally find out then share emphatically.

"Is it on the left or the right?" Chris pulled down a driveway with medical buildings on either side.

"Doesn't matter."

"Well, one side we actually see your doctor, other side we wander around a building like creepy strangers so yeah, it matters a little."

"I'm not going in."

Chris pulled into a space and took her hand, "Today is a lot Love, I know, I'm sorry but this is the last one and then we get to hang out in your city tonight and whatever you want to do we'll do."

Darren shook his head, "She's not upset about that, she's being a brat." Chris shot Darren a look but he pressed on, "She wants to know why we didn't let her go talk to those girls."

"What?"

"So tell me or I'm not going in."

Chris turned to Darren, "Can you take a quick walk up to that building and see if it's the right one?"

Darren figured it was his way of getting Issey alone for a minute so he went ahead.

When they were alone Chris, still holding Issey's hand smiled at her. "Honey I love you, but this isn't going to work. We both know that it will take about two minutes to find out where the office is and then going in so let's stop this."

"Tell me what's going on."

"What's going on is my perfectly mature and beautiful girlfriend is acting like a child because she's had a hard day. You're going in, I'll carry you if I have to."

"What is so horrible that you won't just tell me."

"Nothing. You're making stuff up in your head so you don't have to do this."

They watched as Darren came out of the building and nodded to Chris, jerking his thumb in the direction of the building he'd just exited.

"That's the one. Okay, you walking or am I taking you in over my shoulder?"

Her phone buzzed but Chris kept her hand in his, "Ignore it. This is more important. Let's go."

"Yeah, okay, I'm coming. I still think you guys are up to something though."

He handed her the keys to throw in her purse and started out of the car. She slammed her door, locked all of the doors and pulled out her phone.

She had missed a call from her sister and another from her mother; she hadn't even heard it ring. She also had a text from her sister.

Sophia: I can't believe I'm learning my sister is pregnant from the internet. Call me! Do NOT call Mom.

Chris was banging on the window of the car trying to get her to come out, to be an adult, that they were going to be late but she didn't hear anything. Every sound, every sensory input stopped. Thoughts toppled like dominoes in her mind, this was bad, very, very bad.

Her sister, also known as Supermom didn't read the fan stuff on the internet. She paid less than no attention to Issey's career. She didn't even consider it a career. If anyone were to ask Sohpia what her sister did for a living she'd say "Professional groupie or something." And then talk about how it really was too bad because she was such a bright girl and could settle down with a nice guy and have a normal life.

If this reached Sophia it was widespread. THAT was why the boys didn't want her to talk to fans, the vocal coach for the Glee tour being pregnant wasn't news. One of the Glee cast being a daddy to be was news.

Unlocking the door she spoke to Chris, "Why didn't you say something? When did you know?"

"I found it this morning while we were waiting for you to have your internal exam. It's pretty much everywhere. I'm sorry."

"My family knows. Wait, how much is online? Do they think the baby is your or do they think I'm still with Darren?"

Chris moved her out of the car and leaned in to grab her purse while Darren kept her moving toward the building. "We'll talk about it later okay? Let's just go to the office right now." He hooked his arm around her to keep her from back tracking.

Chris caught up and looped his arm around her from the other side. She stopped walking. "They know all of it don't they?"

"No, not really. They've got some creepily close guesses but nothing has come up about the oncologist, but the fact that you've been involved with both of us is out there." Chris pulled her against him, removing her from Darren's grasp, "It doesn't matter okay? A week ago I would have said this being in the press was a nightmare but now I know what's really important. You being healthy, and," he reached for Darren and pulled him closer to them, holding onto his wrist while keeping one arm around Issey, "our baby. This little circle right here is important okay? I don't care what anyone else thinks or says, Darren doesn't care and I don't want you worrying about it either. Okay?"

Her heart swelled. It was so hard for him, she knew, including Darren in their little circle, but he had. He knew they were all four equal in this now and if someone else had something to say they needed to close ranks and protect each other no matter how they felt about each other at the moment.

"After this appointment I have to sit online and do some damage assessment. I don't know why we haven't heard from Ryan." Now she walked on her own toward the office, again sliding into work mode to put all of this in a frame of reference she knew how to handle.

"We called Ryan, we told him everything and told him we were staying here as long as we needed. He wants you to call him tonight. We were just trying to keep your blood pressure stable through all of your appointments."

Her doctor went over all of the same stuff with them. All three could recite the script by now, the do's and don'ts and all the hedging doctors did to keep themselves from law suits. When she thought they were ready to wrap things up Darren cleared his throat, "Can I ask something, could be stupid but it's bothering me." The doctor encouraged all questions so he continued with what he had noticed during the biopsy.

"It's not a good idea to jump to a conclusion from something like this. That said I do want to speak to you alone for a few minutes Isabelle."

"No. They can stay. Anything you say to me you can say in front of them."

"Probably for the best, I spoke with the oncologist and the radiologist had some concerns about the growth of the mass over the past few days. It's a fairly rapid growth and they also found some additional masses that hadn't shown up on the previous ultrasound." Chris had been sitting but stood behind her now and wrapped his arms around her. Darren sat next to her and held on to her hand.

"It isn't the best sign but still isn't definitive and we won't make any decisions until the results are back next week. Dr. Minke did ask me to talk to you about terminating the pregnancy if it does turn out to be cancer. I know it isn't what you want to hear but I want you to take some time, discuss it amongst yourselves. You are very close to the cut off where termination will not be an option, however if you do have cancer the treatments are limited by your pregnancy. If you terminate we can do a surgical biopsy and remove the cancer then use radiation and chemotherapy to keep the area cancer free. If you decide to keep the baby our best option would be mastectomy which is a much more dramatic response with a longer recovery time."

He was used to the tears at this point; very few people got this news without them. At least these three had teared up without lashing out at him, he set a box of tissues next to her on the exam table and told them they could take as long as they needed, he'd be back in for more questions should they have them.