In Atlanta and on my way to the amphitheater. Got your pass.
Hurrying down the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport terminal, while carrying his one carry-on bag, James tried stuffing his phone into his front pocket when it vibrated with a reply message.
Thank you so much for doing this.
James smiled. He hoped everything went okay with the surprise he had planned.
No problem.
Now carrying a paper cup of coffee he bought at a stand along the way, James flagged down a taxi to take him the 10 minutes to the Lakewood Amphitheater where Lucy would be performing that night.
"James!" a blonde woman called out when he stepped out of the yellow vehicle.
"Mrs. Stone," James replied. After paying the driver he sat his bag on the ground and pulled a badge from his back pocket. "There's the pass. Keep it on you at all times."
"Thank you so much for doing this." James and Mrs. Stone entered the building. "I may have misjudged you." They stopped at Lucy's closed dressing room door. "Are you coming in?"
"I'll let you and Lucy have this time alone. Let her know I'm here and I'll be in soon."
James hurried down the hall to be out of view from the open door but able to see what went on. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear, but that didn't matter.
.O.
"Come in," Lucy called out when there was a knock on the door. She was expecting James any time, but he wouldn't knock. Well, maybe he would if she was indecent and didn't want the door opened. She didn't mind if he saw, but to have the door open to the world…well, okay, it probably wasn't James. Fortunately, she was dressed but she was so comfortable on the couch and getting up was getting to be harder every day.
"Come in." Putting down the can of mixed nuts she'd been eating, she looked up expecting to see a stage hand or her manager or someone along those lines, but not, "Mom!"
"Lucille! Oh my gosh, look at you!"
"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" She didn't make a move to get up. The last time she'd talked to her mother the two hadn't left on good terms.
"James gave me a pass." Mrs. Stone waved the plastic badge.
"James is here?" Lucy looked around her mom not finding anyone standing there.
"He's letting us have some time alone."
"That's nice."
"Lucille, I'm sorry."
"What for?" Lucy shrugged. "You told me how you feel. You only told me the truth."
"That's what I'm sorry for. I thought about you all the time after you hung up on us."
"And you think I want to talk about this now? I've got to be on stage in a few hours; I don't need to get riled up."
"I'm not here to rile you up. I want to see you."
"Well, I don't want to see you. You've been against my lifestyle for the longest time and this is just the last straw."
"But, Lucille…"
"No, Mom. You can't just choose when you want to accept me. Either you accept all of me or you get none of me."
"I do—"
Lucy sighed. She couldn't take this. How could James think she would want to see her mother or that it was right to see her before her show? She didn't want to get angry, but it was too late.
"Just go."
"Fine."
.O.
"Hey, how's it going…" James trailed off entering Lucy's dressing room. He expected to see mother and daughter happily rekindling their relationship but instead found his girlfriend lying on the couch in tears. James hurried to her and grabbed her in his arms.
"I couldn't do it," Lucy choked out.
"Couldn't do what?" James rubbed her back.
"Forgive my mom." She leaned back wiping her eyes. "I should have. She's willing to make things work and I'm just an ass."
"I'm sorry. Your mom called me about you being in Atlanta and I thought this was a good idea." James glanced around the room. "Where is your mom?"
"I dunno. I told her to leave and she left," Lucy sighed. "Anyway, so you said Logan's sick?"
"Oh yeah." James pulled his phone out of his pocket, did a few swipes, and handed it to Lucy.
"Oh my gosh. "
"Camille sent me that this morning. When they went to bed last night he had a few spots, but now he's completely covered."
"Poor Logan."
"He'll manage." He put his arm around Lucy. "I get at least two weeks with you now." He leaned over to kiss her.
"Well, that's good." She kissed him back.
.O.
James had been dreaming about being in makeup for a modeling shoot when a rather large burp interrupted his session, causing the artist to send a flurry of powder up his nose. Instead of sneezing, he opened his eyes in the dark hotel room finding his girlfriend sitting up, rubbing her chest, and occasionally burping.
"Didn't mean to wake you," Lucy burped.
"Are you okay?" He asked in his groggy, sleepy voice.
"Indigestion," Lucy managed. "I'll be fine," she burped again.
"You need some medicine. Uh," James sat up rubbing his eyes, "you have any antacid?"
"Yeah," Lucy took a sip of water from a glass on the nightstand. "In my bag."
James jumped out of bed with as much vigor as someone suddenly waking up in the middle of the night.
"Damn, it's cold in here," he shivered, wrapping his arms around his naked torso. "Shi—" he yelled when he stubbed his toe on the edge of the bed. "Oh crap." He lifted his foot to examine the bleeding nail.
"Got band-aids in the bag, too," Lucy said sleepily.
James sighed, limped to the bag, and began throwing things out, angrily looking for the medicine and bandages.
"Found it." He jumped groggily back onto the bed.
"The antacid?" Lucy burped.
"Darn it." James looked at the band-aid in his hands. "Put this on me and I'll get you your drugs." He gave her his patented Diamond look.
"Fine."
James placed his right foot by his girlfriend's side and let her wrap the plastic bandage around his big toe. "His light brown hair, his hazel eyes," he sang softly.
"Do that again." Lucy placed a hand on her stomach while James finally retrieved the antacid.
"What?" He handed her the two pills which she downed with her bedside water and laid next to her.
"I don't know. Sing something."
"Um…make it count, play it straight, keep it real, don't hesitate."
Lucy grinned.
"When you go big time."
"Right here," she whispered patting the spot on her belly. "You feel that?" She asked after James slid his hand under hers.
"No. What am I feeling for?"
"Keep singing."
"What you want, what you feel…"
"You don't feel the fluttering? Right there?" She pressed his hand deeper into her abdomen.
"Nothing."
"Darn it. When you sing I feel, there's this fluttering right there. Never felt it before. I think it's the baby."
"I wanna feel!"
"Keep singing. Maybe you'll feel something."
James continued with "Big Time Rush" and after that went into "24/7" and the new song they recorded with Jo.
"Nothing," he said dejectedly after finishing Lucy's "You Dumped Me For Her."
"It's early still. Soon. You should feel something soon."
"I hope so," James yawned. "Well, we got a big day tomorrow. Gonna find the sex of the baby," he said as his eyes closed.
.O.
"All right, Lucy," the nurse said the next day. "I'll just spread this gel on your stomach and we'll take a look at the baby."
Sitting in the chair with her legs in the stirrups, Lucy lifted her shirt to reveal her 20 week belly. She grabbed James's hand and waited for the image to appear on the screen before them. Today, the day after the concert, she had an appointment at a gynecologist's office in Atlanta. Her official doctor back home set her up with appointments along the tour to keep her and the baby on the same schedule as if she was at home.
"And there's the baby." The nurse pointed to the blob on the screen. "Aren't you lucky. It looks like you're having a…"
.O.
"Katie!"
"James!"
Sitting on the couch in the hotel room, James waved to the brunette on the other side of the computer. Katie, using her iSlab, was talking to him from the hallways of the Palmwoods, which she was currently walking down.
"It's all set up. The guys are in Camille's apartment putting on their blindfolds."
"And the smoothies?" Lucy asked as she sat down. "That was James's idea."
"Yep."
"All this bobbing up and down is making me feel queasy," Lucy admitted placing a hand over her stomach.
"Sorry."
"Let me know when you're back in 2J. Hafta get ready anyway. We're meeting my mom for dinner."
"How are you, James?" Katie asked once Lucy disappeared from view.
"Good. What about you? How's school?"
Katie shrugged. "School is school."
"Bad, huh?"
"Not bad, per se. Annoying."
"Well, have you tried to make friends?"
"Oh, hey, look. We're here." Katie raised her iSlab to show James the 3J door label.
James sighed. He would have to talk to her about this later.
"Ready?" Katie asked showing James the blindfolded group—Carlos, Kendall, Jo, Camille, Mrs. Knight, and even chicken pox covered Logan. They all grabbed hands and Katie led them out of 3J, to the elevator, down to the second floor, and up to apartment 2J.
"Babe!" James called out.
"I—" Lucy stepped out of the bathroom wiping toothpaste foam off her face.
"It's time," he said.
After tossing the towel into the bathroom Lucy hurried back over to the couch.
Katie led the group into the apartment and situated them around the kitchen counter.
"My head hurts," Logan complained.
Katie rolled her eyes.
"Just drink the smoothie in front of you."
"There are smoothies?" Carlos asked waving his hands in front of him. He almost knocked his smoothie over before picking it up. "Did you get anything else? Corn dogs, perhaps?"
"Just smoothies."
"When did they get strawberry smoothies?" He asked.
"Strawberry?" Kendall questioned. He immediately found his smoothie and took a sip. "Carlos! That's not strawberry. That's blueberry." He slowly removed his blindfold. "Blueberry…"
As each person sipped his or her smoothie he or she removed his or her blindfold. They all looked at each other.
"You're having a boy," Mrs. Knight cooed.
"That's right." James placed the ultrasound picture in front of the camera. "I wish we could have been there to set this up but thankfully Katie was willing to help out."
"He called earlier and the first thing he did before saying hello or anything was make me go buy a blueberry smoothie."
"Oh look, there's his little pee-pee," Mrs. Knight pointed out.
"It looks like he's giving the peace sign," Kendall stated.
"Is he really?" James took the photo away from the camera and examined it. The baby's right fist was casually closed with the index and middle fingers pointing outwards. "That's so cool! I didn't notice that before."
"Like father, like son," Lucy commented. "I hate to break up the little party, but James and I have to get ready."
"Just a few more minutes," James whined.
"Fine, you got five minutes to play with your friends. I'll be in the bathroom."
"Thanks, Mommy." James smiled at his girlfriend.
"Hey, this is YOUR first dinner with the girlfriend's mother," Kendall commented.
"I've already met her," James said.
"Right."
"Hey, hey, this is her idea. She wants to get back in her daughter's life. She wants to make amends. She apologized to Lucy."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. All this was her idea. And Lucy's being a big girl accepting this apology and making one of her own."
"James!" Lucy called out.
"I gotta go. I don't know what'll happen if we're late. You don't know what it's like dealing with a pregnant girl," he whispered.
"I heard that."
Rusher-Driver and Guest: Thank you for your reviews. I had the chicken pox when I was six and still have a scar on my cheek.