'Lindsay.'

'Can't hear you, I'm floating away on an island breeze.'

Lanie chuckled as she watched Lindsay roust herself from the bliss of her massage nap. It was day two of Lindsay's bachelorette weekend and after a breakfast of waffles and fruit salad, the girls had whisked the surprisingly not-so-hungover bride to Mid-Town Day Spa where they'd been met by the rest of their girls. Meredeth, Sloan, Robina, Beckett and Honey-Milk were already in their wraps and robes awaiting the bridal party's arrival, and they were all now in various states of treatment and bliss. Lanie had just finished a facial and was eagerly awaiting Lindsay to be finished her massage so they could give her the next part of the surprise for her bachelorette weekend.

'Well float on back to the island of Manhattan, girl, because the next part of your girlie-day is coming up next.'

'After food,' Lindsay informed her, getting to her feet; as she'd posed naked with Lanie for the Real Live Women photoshoot, she didn't mind when she had to slip a robe over her unclothed body and Lanie saw everything. 'All this breeze-floating has made me snacky.'

'Well, you might wanna wait on that one.'

'Hey!' Honey-Milk and Andrea both appeared behind Lanie, smiling broadly with shining eyes. 'Lanie did you tell her yet,' Honey-Milk asked.

'No, interrupting Nurse Ryan, I hadn't.'

'Tell me what?' Lindsay asked, reaching for her panties and slipping them on over her hips, tugging on the loose fitting tank-top. When the women just exchanged knowing grins, she rolled her eyes. 'Don't be like that, tell me what?'

'Just come with me.'

Andrea took her by the wrist and led her into the living room area of the suite where Meredeth and Alexis were both engaged deeply in a conversation with a cocoa-skinned woman who wore the clothes of the other spa technicians and a colourful Caribbean head-wrap. Whatever she was saying was apparently very amusing because it had Meredeth and Alexis both splitting into snorting fits of giggles. When the writer managed to get it together enough to be aware of her surroundings, she turned towards Lindsay and her entourage.

'Hey there's the droid I'm looking for!' she said triumphantly. 'Lindsay, this is Juvela, Juvela this is our bride and your customer today.'

'Wonderful.' Juvela rose, unfolding her long limbs from the settee and picked up a silver attache case. 'We will use room four over there.'

'For what?' Lindsay asked, starting to feel a little freaked out.

'Ryan heard Adam mentioning you wanted to get your belly button pierced to surprise him for your wedding night but didn't know if you could do it on your own because of the needle. So we brought in the best.' Meredeth rose now too and laid her hand on Juvela's shoulder. 'Juvela did Andrea, Honey-Milk and Katie when they were in the Caribbean for New Year's Eve a few years ago, and you've got all of us here to keep you calm.'

Lindsay could only blink. 'I...I don't know what to say.'

'It's okay to be overwhelmed, Linds,' Sloan said, joining the group when she noticed everyone had gone quiet. 'Meredeth does this for her friends, a lot. When I was about a million weeks pregnant with Nate, Jeremy called in a marker and Meredeth visited me with my favourite movie star and we spent the day together.'

'I...I'm a suck when it comes to needles,' Lindsay informed Juvela. 'I mean it, I'm a total wuss, I cry when I have to get a flu shot which is all of two seconds.'

'Not to worry, darling,' Juvela replied. 'I've seen people who wanted to watch the whole time and others who wore sleep masks and listened to heavy metal on their iPods so they couldn't see or hear a damn thing.'

'I'm not that bad, but...' Lindsay looked around at her friends. 'One of you will hold my hand, right?'

'Of course, darling,' Beckett told her. 'Whoever you want in there with you.'

'Andrea,' she replied without a second thought. 'I want Andrea with me.'

'Okay.'

While the rest went back to their spa treatments and snacks, Andrea looped her arm through Lindsay's as they went into one of the treatment rooms, where one of the leg-waxing tables was still set up. Juvela set down her case, opened it to show a whole rainbow of belly decorations.

'First the most important question, you are interested in a loop or a barbell?'

'Barbell,' Lindsay told her. 'Oh, I like that one.'

She pointed to a silver barbell with its bottom portion fashioned with a cobalt blue butterfly on the bottom half. Adam had often referred to her as being a butterfly; most might have called the metaphor too heavy and obvious but Lindsay loved it. That he thought of her as something so delicate yet enduring, beautiful and strong, was as much as a reassurance of his love as hearing those three little words themselves.

'It is a good one, but I think this one might be a little more appropriate.' Juvela plucked out a little velvet cushion and showed her the silver-and-crystal wedding-bells barbell. 'Perfect for a wedding day, a honeymoon and being newlyweds.'

'That looks so expensive though.'

'It's taken care of,' Juvela waved off her worry, set it on the table. She pulled out her tools next, and Lindsay watched as she pulled out each hermetically sealed packet, unwrap it with latex-gloved hands. 'I always use one-time-only needles and clamps. The only thing that is re-used is my tracking marker. Everything else is for you and you alone.'

'Okay,' Lindsay said in a small voice; she had let her eyes wander too far and she saw the needle still in it's wrapped. Andrea must have seen where her gaze had gone and she turned Lindsay's face away.

'It's okay Lindsay.'

She nodded, hopped up on the table and laid down. Without a moment's hesitation she slammed her eyes shut and threw her arm over her eyes so that her nose rested in the crook of her elbow. Her breathing was deliberately slow and she felt Andrea's slim, sturdy hand clutching her thin nervous one. At the sudden wet, cool feeling her her belly button, Lindsay felt her heartrate kick up.

'What's she doing?' Lindsay murmured. 'Talk me through it, please, Andrea.'

'Okay, she just swabbed the area with the alcohol pad and now she is marking where the barbell is going to go.'

Lindsay whimpered when she felt the strong fingers pinch the flesh of her tummy, the metal cold and tight against her skin. 'Now what?'

'Now she is clamping the area and checking to make sure that nothing is going to be hit by the needle.'

'Okay.'

Andrea spoke to her friend in soft murmuring tones, stroking Lindsay's hair. 'You're doing just fine, Lindsay,' she told her friend, 'and it's nothing to be embarrassed about to be fearful of this. But you will look even sexier than you are right now.'

'You coming on to me Lady Nurse Brick?' Lindsay asked through clenched teeth, let out a little yelp; instantly Andrea was there and soothing her.

'It's okay, Linds, it's just Juvela putting the second clamp in place.'

Lindsay nodded and fought with all her might not to cry, but despite her effort a little tear leaked out of each eye. It wasn't until she unclenched them and just relaxed a little that she realized Juvela was unclamping the metal devices. 'Wait, you're not doing it?'

'Sweetheart,' Andrea laughed, 'she's finished. Have a look.'

Lindsay squinted down her body and felt her jaw drop when she saw the sparkling new decoration on her body. 'That's it?'

'Yeah. The clamping always hurts like a bitch, so much so you barely notice the needle going through.' Andrea stroked her hair as Lindsay shuddered out a breath and a few more tears came. 'It's alright baby girl, you did just great.'

'Here we are.' Juvela was back and dabbing at the area with the special cleanser before pressing a cotton pad to Lindsay's tummy and taping over it with medical one-way. 'You'll need to keep it like that for about twenty-four hours or so, and you'll swab the area just like an earring to keep it clean. Here have a look.'

Juvela helped Lindsay off the table and Andrea felt a surge of pride when Lindsay looked at herself in the hand-mirror the piercer held up, twisted side to side and murmured, 'This will be one hot wedding night.'