A/N~ hello, my lovelies! I would just like to make it known that the whole scenario with Jimmy Kimmel in this chapter is purely hypothetical. I mean nothing against Jimmy Kimmel in this, and I have honestly not watched the Jimmy Kimmel show more than a few times. I only chose him as his show was on in 2006, during the time frame of this chapter, and it is a very well known show. Just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of that.

Ariel's P.O.V.

Several days had passed since Spencer had come home from Georgia, but I was still worried. I had made sure that the apartment was cleared of any dilaudid before we left, and asked Morgan to keep an eye on him. Now Undiscovered Nemesis was heading out to LA, set to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show the next night.

Everyone else on the plane was asleep - luckily our manager had managed to get us a private plane this time around, so we all had room to stretch out. I couldn't sleep though. I had been trying to finish writing the lyrics that we had all been working on before, but I couldn't concentrate at all. I was still thinking about Spence, and the baby.

I still couldn't believe it, but at least I was dealing with it better than Spencer was. After I had gotten back from talking with Gideon, we had sat down to talk over things. He had told me just how afraid he was of what he might become, and I told him that I was honestly afraid of the same thing. Then we started talking about the baby, and just never stopped. At first, he had refused to believe that I was even telling the truth about my being pregnant, which stung more than I'd ever admit. But once he finally accepted it, we ended up talking until we fell asleep on the couch, and, thinking back on it, I was reminded of the early days, when we had just started dating and were still getting to know each other.

I smiled absentmindedly as I rubbed at my stomach. I was only a little over eight weeks along, and wouldn't begin to show until around twelve to sixteen weeks. We were both so excited about this, although Spence was a bit worried, what with Diana's schizophrenia. Worried probably wasn't the right word, either - he was terrified that either he or our child would have the mental illness that destroyed most of his childhood.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even realize that anyone had woken up. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned around.

"Easy, mermaid." Finn said, and I rolled my eyes at him.

"You know I hate that nickname." I grumbled.

He just laughed. "I know - that's why I use it." then he stopped laughing, and I nearly groaned. I recognized the look he was giving me - it was the patented 'I'm worried about you because I know that something's upsetting you and I'm going to force you to talk about it' look. That was the thing with Finn. Most people thought he was the "strong and silent" type, and they weren't wrong. But he was also the "overprotective big brother" of our little band of misfits.

"What is it?" I asked him. "I know that look, and I know that it usually leads to some sort of lecture, so I'm just going to stop you here."

He sighed. "Curses, you've seen through my clever ruse!" he quipped, and I laughed softly. "It's just… you've been out of it since this last case." he didn't have to clarify what he was talking about, since there was really no doubt as to what he meant. "And we all thought that you would be back to normal after your man called, but you're still… tense, I guess." Finn shrugged, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and squeezing me tight. "We're just worried about you kiddo."

I snorted. "You're only a year or so older than me, Finn." I said, raising an eyebrow at him. "That's nowhere near enough for you to be calling me 'kiddo'."

He rolled his eyes at me, then motioned to the notebook that was in my hand. "How much more of the song did you get done?" he asked me, and I gave him a little smile.

"Not much…" I said, then admitted, "Okay, none of it. I started working on something new, actually."

Finn nodded, understanding immediately. We all had our different coping mechanisms - Gabe would go running, Lee and Finn would practice, Kat would head to the nearest gym or dojo, and I would write lyrics. "Alright." he said,walking over to where he and Kat had stored their guitars. "Which one do you want?" he asked me.

I hesitated. "Do we have an acoustic?" I asked him carefully, and his eyes widened, but he didn't comment. We rarely even brought the acoustic guitars with us, since they weren't really ever used in our music.

"Yeah." Finn said as he grabbed one from where he and Kat had stored them earlier. He handed it to me before sitting back down in the seat across the aisle.

I sat there for a moment, thinking about what I was going to do, before taking a deep breath. "Okay." I told Finn. "So I don't have all of the lyrics figured out yet, but the tune goes something like this…"

8888

We landed the plane in LA, and it was utter chaos. The entire airport was full of people, and it seemed like half of them were waiting to ambush us.

We sat on the plane, trying to figure out how to do this, before Finn pointed something out. "You guys, we still have our civvies on us." he said. "So we just slip those on, and cover up the kitten's fur -" Kat hissed at that, making us all laugh, "and then we can sneak out."

"But do we really want to?" Lee asked. "I mean, these are our fans we're talking about. I don't know about you, but I don't want to disappoint them."

"Lee's right." Gabe said. "I definitely don't want to do that to our people."

I grimaced, feeling a bit of morning sickness coming on. "Alright." I said quickly. "I'm game if everyone else is." then I left them to talk it over as I hurried back to the bathroom. I could feel my morning sickness returning, and I barely had time to pull my hair back so that I wouldn't get it covered in vomit before I was bent over the toilet.

I was still puking when the door opened and I heard someone else enter the tiny bathroom.

"Hey baby girl." Kat said, and I felt her hand starting to rub soothing circles on my back. "You alright?"

I was able to stop retching for long enough to give her a Look.

"Okay, so maybe that was a bad question." she admitted as I finally sat up and headed back out to where the rest of the gang was waiting for us. I grabbed a bottle of water and drank about half of it, just trying to get rid of the awful taste in my mouth. Kat followed me back out, and looked like she was about to ask me more questions, so I cut her off.

"So what's the plan, guys?" I asked. "Do we go out there and see our fans, but possibly get mauled in the process, or do we disappoint our fans but keep all of our limbs?"

They all looked at each other for another thirty seconds or so, having a silent conversation.

Lee was the one to answer my question. "Let's go out there and meet some people." he said. "Better grab the riot gear, just in case."

8888

It was almost like a bomb had exploded the second that we stepped out into the terminal. People were screaming, cameras were flashing, and none of us had any idea what to do. This was the first time that we had to deal with this many people at once - at least, outside of a concert. But at concerts the fans were kept back at least a bit, instead of pushing up against us.

Now, though, there was nothing to keep us separate from our fans except for a few security people that our manager had insisted on. It was exhilarating, to say the least. By the time that we actually made it out of the airport, we were all practically in shock at the sheer number of people that had come to see us.

To my surprise - and embarrassment - I actually started to tear up a bit when we got out to the car.

The guys all looked terrified, and actually started to shove at each other in an attempt to get away from what they considered to be 'cooties'. Kat just rolled her eyes at all of them and moved over to wrap an arm around my shoulders.

"Just relax, Ari." she said soothingly, although I could tell that she was freaking out a bit.

8888

Spencer's P.O.V.

I was stuck at home for another two days before I was allowed back at work, and it was killing me. I had never been so bored in my life. I was sure that if I had to do this - just sitting around, doing nothing - I was going to lose my mind.

My phone went off then, and I started to look for it. I finally found it after a few minutes - it was buried under a pile of blankets.

I flipped it open and hit the "open message" button.

Hey killer. It read. Make sure to watch the Jimmy Kimmel show tonight, k?

I just smiled at the message, knowing that I shouldn't answer. According to what she had told me about the band's schedule for their trip to LA, she was supposed to be at a magazine interview right now.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. I wasn't even surprised anymore, it was probably Morgan again. Ariel had assigned him to be my babysitter until she got back.

But when I went to open the door, I found Garcia there instead.

"Hi, my junior G-Man!" she said excitedly, pulling me into a hug. I just stood there in the doorway for a minute, staring at her.

"Why are you here?" I asked, and a look of hurt crossed her face. "Not that I don't want you to be here." I said quickly. "Its just that I was expecting Morgan…"

She looked surprised for a second, before admitting, "The rest of the team got a case, so he sent me instead."

"Alright." I said, smiling at her then. "Come on in."

8888

I turned on the Jimmy Kimmel show just in time, and my face nearly split in two, my smile was so big. Undiscovered Nemesis was centered in the camera lens, but I barely even noticed the rest of the band as I looked at Ariel. She wore a baggy gray shirt that I was pretty sure had been stolen from my closet that said Death to the Pixies on it. It completely dwarfed her tiny frame, and the short sleeves had been rolled up so that the shirt had no sleeves at all. The shirt went nearly down to her knees, and luckily she was wearing ripped jeans instead of shorts, because otherwise it would have looked like she wasn't wearing pants. Kat was sitting next to her, wearing a black-and-green plaid pleated miniskirt overtop of pantyhose and thick-soled combat boots, with a Ramones tank top overtop of a fishnet shirt.

"Who are they?" Garcia asked me as she came over and curled up on the couch with me.

"Undiscovered Nemesis." I told her. "They're a rock band."

She looked at them for a minute, studying their faces and I found myself actually a bit worried. If there was anyone on the team who could figure out the truth of Ari Ross, it would be Garcia.

"So for those of you who don't know my guests," Jimmy Kimmel started. "then you have obviously been living under a rock."

Ariel burst out laughing at that, and I felt a little green-eyed monster start to rear its ugly head. I knew that it was entirely uncalled for, but I didn't like seeing anyone else get that sort of reaction from my wife.

"And if you do know them," he continued. "Then allow me to introduce them anyway. Finn Ryan, Lee Voss, Gabriel Geiss, Kat Simms, and last but certainly not least, we have the lovely front lady of the band, Ari Ross. Together they are the amazingly talented group Undiscovered Nemesis."

Ariel sat up just the tiniest bit straighter then as she squirmed a bit. She was looking a bit pale, but I couldn't tell if it was just because of the studio lights and things, or if something was really wrong.

"Thanks for having us." Kat responded.

"So, you have had a rather amazing rise to fame lately, isn't that right? Your last album sold over two million copies, earning you your first ever gold record, is that right?"

"Yeah." Finn said, and that got Garcia to speak up.

"He doesn't exactly look like the talkative type." she commented, but I didn't even bother replying.

"Now, what exactly do you think has helped you with your careers - that is, what keeps you going, keeps you performing?"

Ari smiled at that. "Well, our fans are definitely a huge part of what keeps us going." she started, and the rest of the group nodded in agreement. "But our family and friends are the reason why we have been able to make it this far. Without their support and help, we wouldn't have made it past our first tour."

The interview continued on for awhile longer, and I could feel my jealousy growing stronger as time went on. It was obviously that Jimmy Kimmel was flirting with Ari, and that she was getting more and more irritated about it.

At one point, even Garcia commented on it. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous." she said. "He's blatantly harassing her! How is she not getting pissed off about that?"

I could feel my jaw aching from the force of my teeth grinding together as I answered her, trying to keep from snapping at Garcia or saying something that I would regret. The anger at seeing someone else flirting with my wife was doing strange things to me - along with the usual reaction of jealousy, I could feel the desire for dilaudid was stronger than it had been for days. I had started going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings as soon as Ariel had given me her ultimatum. That, combined with the fact that, in about seven months I was going to be a father, gave me very good reasons to kick the habit. The show went to a commercial break, and I took that opportunity to answer her. "Well there's not much that she can do about it while they're on the air, is there?" I grumbled.

We just sat there awkwardly until the commercials were over. As soon as it went back to the show, though, it was clear that something had happened during the break because now Kat was sitting next to Jimmy, and Ari was sitting on the other end of the couch. Jimmy was also looking very embarrassed, blushing slightly every time that his eyes even went anywhere near her.

"Whoa." Garcia said, looking shocked. "Something obviously happened."

I smirked at that, imagining what had happened. "Oh, I'm sure something did."

8888

Ariel's P.O.V.

As soon as we were given the green light that we had cut to commercial, Jimmy Kimmel was turning to flirt with me some more, but I had had enough.

"Okay, enough is enough." I said, turning to him. "I'm flattered, but stop. Just stop. I'm not interested, and even if I was, its just not professional. So just… Stop." With that said, I got up from where I was sitting and moved to the other end of the couch, sitting next to Lee instead.

Jimmy waited for a moment before turning to Kat, who was sitting there playing with her hair. "So, what else can you do with those hands?" he asked her. She looked up at him and smiled, showing more teeth than the average shark.

"Strangle you." she said sweetly. I smirked, while Finn hid his smile, and Gabe and Lee burst out laughing. He went so pale that for a moment I thought he was going to pass out. Luckily he didn't, because there would have been a big problem if he did.

8888

"And we're back!" Jimmy said, smiling into the camera. "And now we have Undiscovered Nemesis, with their newest song, Fear!"

The audience applauded as the lights dimmed, and I took a deep breath. This was the song that I had been working on on the plane ride, but the band had come together to help me finish it.

The guys started up on the instruments, and I waited for my cue. This was our first time performing live on the air, and even though we had played in front of a live audience too many times to count, it still felt like the first time all over again.

Lee started in on the drums, with Gabe and Finn starting on their guitars a minute later.

Are you scared of the dark
Are you afraid they'll break your heart
Are you afraid you'll lose yourself
Are you afraid of your own hell

Are you scared to lose
Are you afraid to choose
Are you afraid you'll win
Are you scared of your own sin

Are you scared to forgive
Are you afraid to live
Are you afraid to die
Do you think it's all a lie

Kat joined in on the chorus, both playing her guitar and singing with me.

To live
When you think you're dying
To laugh
When you feel like crying
To stand
When you think you're gonna fall
It's just fear after all
It's only fear after all

It went back to just me singing, and I closed my eyes. I pictured Spencer in front of me instead of the audience, and I couldn't help but smile as I thought of him. I placed one hand on my stomach, thinking of the child inside.

Are you afraid you'll be alone
Are you scared to pick up the phone
Are you scared of the past
Do you think that you might crash
Do you think you're in too deep
Are you afraid to sleep
Are you scared there's no stability
Are you afraid of your own fragility

To live
When you think you're dying
To laugh
When you feel like crying
To stand
When you think you're gonna fall
It's just fear after all
It's only fear

To mend
When you're think you're breaking
To strength
When you know you're shaking
To pray
When your back's against the wall
It's only fear after all

Are you scared of the end
Are you scared to begin
Are you scared of the start
Do you think they'll break your heart
Do you think they'll break your heart

To live
When you think you're dying
To laugh
When you feel like crying
To stand
When you think you're gonna fall
It's just fear after all
It's only fear after all
It's only fear

The only fear is fear itself
The only fear is fear itself
The only fear is fear itself

It's only fear

8888

Spencer's P.O.V.

The song ended, and I couldn't stop smiling. Even though I had never heard the song before, I still knew that Ariel had written it because of everything that had happened. And as Garcia and I sat there, I realized something. Ariel was right.

Its only fear after all.

Thank you to all of you who read, and a special thanks to ahowell1993, ripon, tannerose5, Momochan77, SakuraKoi, tlcroft, and Storylover00 for their reviews!

Also, the little scene between Kat and Jimmy Kimmel was something that I found on Tumblr.