FORMERLY KNOWN AS BIG TIME SECRETS! I changed the title, because this is what I originally wanted to go with and feel this is more apt for what's happening. They aren't secrets. They're surprises. Actually, naming it Big Time Secrets was a mistake. Glad I caught that when I did. Wish I'd seen it sooner.

This was it. Well, okay it wasn't it it. James was not telling Gustavo today or Kelly. Or anyone that didn't already know. But, Lucy did have an appointment with her OB/GYN today. They were going to see the baby for the first time. They were going to find out for sure and for certain that a baby was on the way. He trusted the pregnancy tests, but this was from a doctor. The appointment was scheduled during his lunch hour so he had to find a way to get there without Gustavo finding out where he was going and without anyone not named Logan, Kendall, or Carlos finding out it was Lucy and him going to such a place.

"How are you holding up?" Kendall asked as they headed to Rocque Records in the limo that picked them up. The partition between the driver and the passengers was up so hopefully he couldn't hear their topic of conversation.

"Fine," James replied.

"We've barely seen you all weekend, since you know, you dropped that bomb on us," Carlos stated.

"Lucy had a bad case of morning sickness, which really should be renamed 'All Day Sickness.' I just felt better being with her."

"How does it feel? You're going to be a dad!" Logan joined in.

"Is this how it's going to be from now on?" Carlos asked. "You dumping us for Lucy?"

"Dude, he's got a kid on the way." Kendall elbowed his Latino best friend. "He doesn't have time for childish things anymore."

"Hey, nothing's going to change between us. We're just adding someone new to the group."

"You do know she's giving birth to a baby not a full grown adult?" Logan joked.

"Haha, yes, I know."

The limo pulled up to the back of the studio and before anyone knew it the boys were bombarded with cameras and microphones.

"Can you tell us who at the Palmwoods is pregnant?" a lady with fluffy hair asked as flashbulbs went off all around them.

James froze. What? They knew? How could they know? James and Lucy never left the building all weekend. The only time they talked about the situation was in 2I or 2J. Did someone tell? He trusted his friends better than that.

"It's Alexa Vega, isn't it? That's why she moved into the Palm Woods…to be closer to her baby daddy?" a rather short funny looking man stuck his tape recorder in Carlos's face. "She has been looking a little chunkier lately."

"Alexa is not fat!" Carlos raised his arm to punch the guy. Both Logan and Kendall pulled him towards the building to keep him from getting into an altercation.

"We found a box for a home pregnancy test in the trash," the fluffy lady said. "We know you know who it belongs to. Is it Jo? Is that why you two are getting married, Kendall?"

James found his strength and pushed his friends inside to get away from the noise and hubbub.

"How? How?" Was all he could say as they made their way to Gustavo's office.

"Dogs!" Gustavo bellowed once all four of them were in the room with him. "What's this going on outside my studio?"

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James shared looks but no one said anything.

"There's a rumor that someone at the Palmwoods is having a baby and that's why those animals are outside trying to get a hold of you."

"There are plenty of people at the Palmwoods," Logan laughed nervously. "Could be any of them."

Kendall looked at James and then stepped towards his manager/producer.

"It's Jo. Yeah, that's why we're getting married. She's pregnant with my baby. I'm gonna be a dad."

Gustavo's face turned red. If he was a cartoon character he would have had steam coming out of his ears.

"How can you just—"

"It's not Jo," James interrupted.

"James, it's okay. You don't have to cover for me."

"I'm not." He glanced around hoping no one or nothing was spying on him. This was not how he planned on telling Gustavo. He had sort of hoped Lucy would be with him. But, he did not want Kendall to take the brunt of Gustavo's anger.

"Hey, do you know something about…" Kelly entered the room, immediately shushed by the guys. Carlos, standing the closest to it, closed the door.

"I think James had something he wanted to say," Gustavo said.

"I—I—we found out Friday," he said in a low voice.

"What's that?" Gustavo leaned closer.

Kelly gasped. "Lucy's pregnant?"

James nodded slowly.

Gustavo made to jump at him but was blocked by Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and Kelly.

"Do you know what you're doing to me? To BTR? To your career?" He yelled.

"To you? What is he doing to you?" Kendall asked.

"I'm at a good place in my career. We can more than afford this baby. I've done nothing wrong." James bit his lip. Had he? Sex before marriage. He felt like he was falling far from that guy he'd found in Colorado.

"How are the fans going to react?"

"Shit, Gustavo, is that all you think about?" Kendall bounced back.

"If they're BTR fans they'll be supportive," Carlos spoke up.

James sat down in one of the two empty chairs in the room and put his head in his hands. This was not how this was supposed to go down. This wasn't supposed to happen today. It was all wrong. Everything was wrong.

"It's okay, Jay." Kendall placed a hand on James's shoulder. "Gustavo's not going to kill you." He glared at his manager when mentioning his name.

"I know. Lucy wants to wait to tell everyone and I keep blurting it out."

"I'm," Gustavo cleared his throat. "I'm glad you told me. I'm sorry for getting upset at you."

James's head jerked up at that. Gustavo was apologizing?

"I promise not to tell anyone. Who all knows?"

"The guys, their girlfriends—"

Kendall cleared his throat.

"—Kendall's fiancée, Katie, Mama Knight, and now, you two," James answered.

"OK, just DON'T let this get in the way of making music."

James shook his head. Lucy and the baby came first. But, he wasn't willing to have another fight about the issue so he'd just let it drop.

"Actually, we have an appointment today during lunch."

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah, it's our first." A slight smile appeared on James's face.

"Aw," Kelly cooed. "You have to let him go."

"I don't have to—" Gustavo stopped when he saw the look on his assistant's face. "All right. You can go, James." He then turned his computer monitor toward the guys. "Now, let's get down to why I've asked you in today." He pressed a button on the computer and five faces appeared on the screen.

"Hi, we're The Backstreet Boys."

The four boys of Big Time Rush shared looks. The Backstreet Boys? They were the best selling boy band of all time. They were the dream every boy band aspired to be.

"And you're Big Time Rush," AJ said.

"We heard about your accident, Carlos, and hope you're doing better," Kevin said.

Carlos blushed at being singled out by a Backstreet Boy.

'I've brought you here today," Gustavo broke in, "because I have a special announcement, which the Boys already know about. Your two groups will be performing together at the Music Video Awards next month."

"We're sorry we couldn't be there in person," Brian spoke, "but as soon as we're in LA we'll get together for rehearsals."

"That's right. I want to use this time for you nine to get to know each other and then we'll work on setting up the performance," Gustavo interjected.

James stared at the screen. Maybe he could talk to Brian about everything that had been going on in his life recently. He was obviously a Christian who could make it work in a boy band, a very successful one at that. But, he didn't really know the guy, so he didn't felt about opening up so much to him. He wasn't even sure he could help him. James wasn't sure what direction he was going in lately. He sighed. For right now he'd just get to know him and let that be that.

.O.

James stomach was in knots and if his stomach was in knots he could only imagine how Lucy felt. Very shortly, as in any minute now, she would be meeting them at Rocque Records so they could attend the doctor's appointment together. He was currently sitting in a recording booth with the rest of the guys while they worked on the vocals to "Windows Down" a song they were considering for their BSBTR collaboration. However, James's mind wasn't on the words he sang but rather how the two were going to get to the OB/GYN without anyone recognizing them.

"The paparazzi!" He blurted out.

"Cut!" Gustavo shouted. "What is that you're blabbing about?"

"N-nothing. Sorry." He couldn't let Lucy get bombarded by the paps. This was the whole reason she wanted to keep the pregnancy a secret for as long as she could. Well, she didn't specify when she'd like to go public, but James figured it would be when she could no longer hide it, though celebrities pushed those boundaries denying it when they had bellies sticking out to there.

"I said, let's start on the second verse!" Gustavo repeated loudly bringing James back into the conversation. "Oh forget it. We'll convene after lunch."

"What am I going to do?" James complained as the group entered the lobby and flung themselves on the white couch.

"Go to your appointment?" Carlos asked.

James glared at him.

"It's not that simple," Logan said. "They don't want anyone finding out about this so they need a way to sneak her in without anyone knowing."

"Put her in a box and James could act like a delivery man," Carlos suggested.

"You think Camille's got some disguises they can use?" Kendall asked Logan.

At that moment Lucy walked in wearing sweatpants and James's hoodie that practically swallowed her whole with her hair tied up on her head in a messy bun, the first time James believed he had seen her hair up.

"Gosh, you look beautiful," James breathed.

"Oh shut-up," she replied sitting down next to him and snuggling into his arms. "I feel like crap. I've been throwing up all morning. Tried to eat a bowl of cereal and up it came. I don't think I'm ever going to like food again."

James rubbed her head. "I wish I could make you feel better."

"It's okay. It's not your fa—no wait, it kinda is." She grinned slyly.

"Aw," Kelly cooed entering the room. Lucy looked at her and then at James.

"She knows, doesn't she?" She sat up. "How does she know? James!"

"I—I—kind of told." He put his hands up in defense as Lucy came at him hitting his shoulders and biceps. "Hey, hey, you weren't here this morning."

"Don't blame James," Kelly said. "We were overrun by paparazzi this morning. They found out someone at The Palmwoods took a pregnancy test."

"You didn't tell them?"

"No, no, no, hell no!"

"Good. I guess we better get going." Lucy reluctantly stood up brushing a bit of hair out of her eyes.

"We can't—they'll see—we—us," James sputtered.

"You know, I think," Kendall pulled the hood over Lucy's head, "yeah, you could get away with that."

"Yeah, if I didn't know it was Lucy under there I wouldn't know who it was," Carlos said.

"Gustavo, let James borrow your sweatshirt," Kelly shouted toward his office.

"No!" Gustavo shouted back.

Kelly disappeared into his office and a few minutes later reappeared with Gustavo's white hoodie and his cap.

Everyone laughed at how much the sweatshirt ate James.

"But at least it'll keep people from recognizing me," he pointed out.

.O.

"All right, Miss Stone," the nurse said once Lucy situated herself in the chair at the doctor's office. Once Lucy's belly was exposed, the nurse wiped the cold jelly on it and used the transducer to produce an image of Lucy's uterus. "All right." She moved the wand a bit.

James stared at the image appearing on the screen. It was black and white and fuzzy, hard to make out. Honestly, he had no idea what he was looking at.

"There it is." The nurse pointed to a fuzzy round thing on the screen. "That's your baby."

That thing? But, it looked like…it looked like…well, James wasn't sure what it looked like, but it didn't look like a baby.

"I know it's confusing but it is perfectly normal. Everything looks fine. There's the head." She pointed to one end of the well, James hated thinking it, but to him it was a blob. "And there are its little feet beginning to take shape." James let out a breath. He could sort of make that out. "It appears to be measuring at 9 weeks which would put your due date around September 22." She printed out two pictures and handed them to the couple. "I'll let you have a moment."

Once the nurse left the room after cleaning up Lucy's belly, Lucy sat up and reached for James's hand.

"Our baby has feet," she said softly not taking her eyes off the picture. "This is real. It's really happening."

"There's really a baby inside of you."

"Yep, there's really a baby inside of me. I know it's cliché to cry, but I can't help it. It's so…"

"Real?" James supplied with a smile.

"Real," Lucy repeated.

I didn't plan for James to tell Gustavo so soon, but as I wrote this it just came out that way and I decided to go with it. Hope you like it.

The idea for The Backstreet Boys came from them touring with NKOTB. While daydreaming about this story that idea popped into my head. They aren't going to be big important characters or anything, just something fun I thought I'd add to the story. Also, I don't really like the term baby daddy, but someone working in the rumor mongering celebrity media field would definitely use it.

Really long chapter (for me). Maybe I'll get in the habit of making all of them this long. :p

I find it funny that Schmidt crushes on Lucy Hale and one of her best friends played his love interest on the show.