"Van Landingham will do the catering," Jo said to Kendall as they both entered his apartment on that sunny California afternoon. "We just have to decide buffet or sit-down, fish or chicken."

"Beef. It's what's for dinner." Kendall sat down at the counter while Jo pulled two bottled waters from the fridge.

"I know!" James screeched from the couch.

Kendall turned to see him stretched out on the orange piece of furniture with his laptop in front of him. James turned it around to show Lucy on the screen.

"Hey, Lucy," Jo and Kendall greeted.

"OK," Jo sat down next to Kendall, "how do we want dinner served at the reception?"

"I dunno."

"Buffet everyone gets what they want, but sit-down is classier." Jo tapped her chin. "Maybe we should go with buffet."

"Hey, we can be classy!"

"James, Logan, and Carlos?"

"Yeah!"

"Really?"

"Put them in tuxes…" Kendall took a sip of water.

"Are you saying you want the sit-down dinner?"

"If it can prove to you BTR can be classy."

"All right then. Sit-down it is. Have you picked your best man yet?"

"I got a year."

"I don't want you waiting until the last minute. Time will go by faster than you think."

"Just because you had it so easy picking Camille," he sighed. "Do I have to pick one?"

"Tradition. The best man takes care of the bachelor party. He stands with you at the altar. He gives the best man's speech at the reception."

"That's all James, Carlos, and Logan. Best man is an honorary title that will lead to hurt feelings."

"You said you knew James the longest. Why don't you just go with him?"

"I dunno. He's busy with Lucy and the baby and…this is just more to add to his plate."

"Carlos? Logan? You've known Carlos longer."

"Yeah, but I room with Logan."

"Are you closer to Logan? How did you wind up roommates?"

"We drew straws. Maybe we could do that? Let the straws decide."

"It's a thought. What do you think James?"

Kendall and Jo turned around when a loud crunching sound came from the computer.

"Lucy!" James shook the laptop. "Lucy!"

.O.

He had been happily chatting with his girlfriend. Lucy was almost in Ohio giving a concert in a few days. They had been talking about the baby. Lucy had another doctor's appointment coming up. She was beginning to really feel the baby kick. James was jealous. He hadn't been able to feel anything before he left.

Then came the crunching sound.

Lucy's face froze on the screen. It became pixilated before turning into a mess of color and then a dark screen.

"Lucy!" James shouted again.

He jumped up knocking his laptop to the floor and frantically pulled his phone from his pants pocket.

"Answer, Lucy, answer!" He cried with tears welling up in his eyes.

"Hi, this is Lucy St—"

"Dammit!" He exclaimed at reaching her voicemail. He redialed the number but only her voicemail picked up again. "No, no, no, no," he muttered to himself.

He went through all the numbers in his address book of her manager, band members, bus drivers, anyone he could think of until he finally got Greg Brown from From This Town to answer.

"She was in an accident," was how he answered the phone.

"H-how bad?" James managed.

Kendall and Jo came over to wrap their arms around him but he brushed them off.

"We were a few vehicles back but Cody got a good view. A tractor trailer slammed into her bus's left side."

James's heart leapt into his throat.

"That's where she was sitting. Talking to me. FaceTalk."

"Oh man, you heard it?"

"Is she okay?"

"It—I—the ambulance is here pulling her out. I don't know, man. Oh!" He gasped.

"What? What?" James started pacing the room wanting to rip his hair out.

"She's—she's they've got her on the stretcher. Her neck is in a brace and her face's bloody. I don't know, man."

"Baby?"

"I don't know. I don't know." There was a pause and James heard Greg say "he's the baby's father." Finally he came back on the line. "The EMTs are too busy. Tried to get them to talk to you. You could ask them questions but they're too busy."

"What about her manager? Rudolph?"

"Yeah, yeah he's here."

"Can I talk to him?"

There was some muffled words and shuffling going on before the gruff voice of Lucy's manager spoke.

"We're taking her to the St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Can't talk."

And then Greg was back.

"You want me to call you back when I get any information?"

"I—I don't want to lose connection here." James put his hand over the mouthpiece and gave into Kendall and Jo's expectant faces. "Lucy was in a bus accident and is being sent to a hospital in Ohio."

Jo gasped. Kendall patted James's shoulder.

"I—I'm going to her. I need to be there," James said both to Kendall and Jo and to Greg on the other end of the line. "You're in Youngstown?"

"Outside of it, I think, but yeah, she's being sent to St. Elizabeth."

"I'll get there as fast as I can. You keep me updated on everything."

"Will do, man."

James hung up the phone, fell back onto the couch, and sobbed. Kendall and Jo joined him putting their arms around his shoulders.

"It's going to be okay," Jo said softly.

"You don't know that!" James yelled.

"Don't yell at my fiancée."

"I can't lose her. I can't lose her. I can't lose the baby. I can't lose them. I don't know what to do."

"Get to her," Kendall tapped the phone in James's hands. When James didn't move Jo took the phone out of his hands and began searching flights.

"You said she's in Youngstown—Ohio?"

"Yeah."

"OK." A few minutes later Jo stopped typing. "I got you a flight leaving in four hours."

"Thank you."

"Go!" Kendall urged him when he didn't move.

"Oh, right."

James ran to his bedroom, threw open the closet door, grabbed his suitcase, and began stuffing clothes into it. After throwing in a pair of jeans he came across a book he had forgotten about, one he didn't realize he had stuffed into the inner depths of his closet.

James fell to his knees.

"Lord," he cried. "I know you're here and I know you have a plan, but please don't let that plan be to take Lucy or the baby away from me. I can't handle that. You give us what we can bear. You know us better than we know ourselves and you know what we can bear better than we do. I don't want a life without Lucy to be something I can and have to bear. Don't do this to me." He buried his face in his hands and let the tears flow.

.O.

"Mom?" Sitting in the terminal of the Los Angeles Airport, James answered his ringing phone, surprised to find his mom calling.

"Are you okay?" She sounded as if she'd been crying herself.

"I'm—I'm—how do you know?"

"I'm a mother. I know everything. I got an alert about Lucy."

"I can't lose her," James blubbered.

"You aren't going to lose her."

"I don't—"

"Have you heard anything? Where are you?"

"I talked to Greg from the warm-up act a few hours ago. He said he'd call with news, but he hasn't. I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta."

"Atlanta? The alert said the accident took place in Ohio?"

"Yeah, I have to fly to Atlanta for a connecting flight to Akron and then drive an hour to the hospital."

"Would you like me to meet you there?"

"Thanks, but I'll be okay. I just need to hear from Lucy. I've called her twice since I've been in the airport and she won't answer!" His voice rose with every word. He took a deep breath and continued in a more normal tone. "What did the alert say?"

"Just that Lucy's tour bus was hit by a tractor trailer. She was taken to the nearest hospital and is in an undetermined condition."

James sighed. She didn't say critical. She didn't say de—he wasn't going to think that word. She didn't say anything except undetermined.

"Anything about the baby?"

"No."

James sat in silence for a moment and then almost inaudibly spoke, "Mom, I love you."

"I love you, too, baby. Do you need anything?"

"Can you just stay on the line?"

"I think you should call her manager or someone there?"

"I've tried! No one wants to talk."

"OK. I'll stay here with you. I've got a meeting with a designer in an hour."

"I think the plane'll be boarding by then."

"Have you talked to Lucy's parents?"

"I didn't even think about them. Oops. But, what can I tell them? I don't know anything."

James sat in plastic airport chairs talking to his mom about nothing, really, just to keep himself together while waiting for the plane to board. He didn't really care what his mom had to say, she was telling a story about someone protesting in front of her factory over testing on animals which Brooke Diamond Cosmetics did not do, he just needed to hear her. He really wanted her to hold him but that wasn't possible over the phone. Her voice was the next best thing.

"Flight DL16 to Atlanta is now boarding…" James's ears perked up at the voice over the intercom. He had actually almost fallen asleep listening to his mother's lovely story.

"Mom, I gotta go. Um, I'll call you when I land or hear something or…I don't know…I'll call you."

"All right. Be safe. I love you, Son."

"Love you, too, Mom." Reluctantly James hung up his phone. After a yawn and a quick stretch, he placed the phone in the front section of his carry-on, grabbed the bag, and headed toward the gate.

.O.

Finally, over thirteen hours after hearing the news which included a four and a half hour flight to Atlanta, a one and a half hour layover, a one hour and forty-five minute flight to Akron, and a one hour and twenty minute drive James was in the lobby of St. Elizabeth. His stomach growled as he asked the receptionist for Lucy's room number, reminding him he hadn't eaten since breakfast (there had been a meal on the flight to Atlanta but he didn't eat).

It was past midnight his body's time and probably past three in the morning Ohio time which meant visiting hours were definitely over, but he was James Diamond, damn it, and he was going to finally see his girlfriend and mother of his baby after hearing her awful bus crash. While in Atlanta he had received a call from Greg telling him Lucy had been placed in a room but was still unconscious. He didn't know anything else. It baffled James how they could want to keep him in the dark. What other reason could they have for not telling him Lucy's condition? And why the hell hadn't he been able to talk to Lucy?

After a roundabout trip through a maze of hallways and elevators James found himself in front of Lucy's hospital room. Adjusting the bag on his shoulder, he reached for the door knob. This was it. He was at last going to know the extent of her injuries.

"Sir, you can't go in there." A nurse stopped him, putting a hand on his arm.

"I'm her—that's—I'm—" He looked into the nurse's tired brown eyes.

"Oh, you're, oh, I'm so sorry. Yes, of course you can go in. My apologies." She released her hold and James opened the door.

I'm a cruel, cruel woman for doing that, aren't I? You'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out what happened.