Jordan face was pale and she just stared at him without breathing. He continued to hold the bag of powder in front of her face, staring at her coldly.

-“Justin, it’s not…” she started, but he interrupted her.

-“Not what? Not what it looks like? You’re telling me this isn’t cocaine? Really?” He was yelling now and she winced.

-“No, it’s…I haven’t…” she almost whispered.

-“I started to fucking trust you, Jordan! But I guess it was all an act, the suddenly good mother routine you’ve been playing!” he took one step towards her and she slowly took a couple of steps back, still holding her breath. “You’ve been taking this shit? What else have you been taking? It’s my kid’s fucking life you’re playing with here!” He was so angry, his face all read, spitting out the words.

-“I didn’t… I haven’t…” She was up against the wall now, slowly sliding down. He could see the fear in her eyes, but he didn’t care.

-“How dare you, you stupid bitch! I am so filing for custody; you’re getting nowhere near this baby! DO YOU HEAR ME?” he screamed, and she positioned her self hiding her face behind her knees with her open hands shielding her against him.

-“Please, don’t…don’t…” she mumbled, her whole body trembling.

He stopped dead when he suddenly noticed the total terror in her voice and the way she held her hands up. He sank to his knees in front of her, making her wince and push herself further up against the wall. He stared at her and tried to get her face up from her knees with his hand.

She crawled away in a speed out of this world, and he got completely confused by her reaction. She got up and started running, but he caught up with her in no time, grabbing her arm.

She screamed loud and tried to get away. He had no idea what was happening with her, and he had no idea what he was doing, he just knew he needed to get her to calm down.

-“Jordan!” he tried and she was down on the floor again, lying in a foetus position.

-“Please, no feet…only hands…The baby…” she managed to say and he just stood there, completely shocked.

-“You think I’m gonna…hit you?” he asked slowly, but she didn’t answer, continuing to shield her tummy. He fell down on his knees again pulling her shaking body towards him, holding her tight, rubbing her back.

-“Breathe, Jordan, please… I’m not gonna hurt you, I will never hurt you” he whispered in her ear, trying to look at her face. “Open your eyes, Jordan, look at me!”

Finally her breathing became slower and she opened her eyes warily. When she looked into his eyes she saw that the anger had changed to concern and they continued to stare at each other until her breathing was completely back to normal.

-“I haven’t taken anything since I found out I was pregnant. No drugs, no alcohol, nothing” she whispered

-“Promise?” He searched her eyes, and knew instinctively that she was telling him the truth. She nodded.

-“I swear! I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, please believe me”

-“So why do you still have it?”

-“I don’t know, I had forgotten about it”

Without letting go of her eyes he lifted her up and carried her to the couch. He sat down with her lying in his lap, rocking her while he stoked her hair and kissed her forehead.

-“I’m sorry, Jordan, I didn’t mean to scare you like that… I didn’t know…”

Her eyes were like glass as they slowly started to close. He kissed her nose and let her fall asleep in his arms.

He understood then that he knew nothing about her past, and that he had no right to judge her in any way. He just wanted to protect her, protect Destiny, and the last thing he wanted was for her to be afraid of him. He pulled her tighter as he felt his tears starting to fall. 

He woke up several hours later, missing the warmth of her body. She had probably gone to bed. He didn’t want to leave without talking to her, making sure she was all right, but he couldn’t just wander up to her bedroom. Should he just stay the night? Nah, maybe he should just get home and call her in the morning, or stop by…? Yeah, that was probably a better idea.  

He walked outside and got in his car. He remembered the code for the gate and opened it, just to be blinded by lights from a few cameras again. It wasn’t too many of them left, but the few who were got their shot of him leaving her house in the middle of the night. Well, he had bigger worries than the front page tomorrow morning.  

When he got home he saw the dim lights from the living room.

-“Trace?” he asked quietly.

-“Justin? Where the fuck have you been?” he jumped up from the couch and looked at him. “You look like shit! What happened? It’s 3 am! Where have you been?”

-“With Jordan…” he sighed

-“Until now? Did you loose your phone?”

Oh, fuck, he had completely forgotten that he turned off his phone when he got to the hospital this morning. He turned it on to see 30 messages.

-“From you?” he asked

-“Some from me, some from your mother, a couple from Ken, a few from Johnny, and several hysterical ones from your girlfriend.” Trace shook his head.

-“Oh, fuck, I forgot…”

-“This is the day after you went public with this story, and the first day you were going to an ultra sound. You’d expect a few people to be a bit curious.”

-“I’m sorry” Justin sighed and sat down, pouring a glass of Scotch.

-“So, what happened, why do you look like you have the worst hangover in the world?”

Justin smiled tiredly.

-“This has been a pretty eventful day…”

Trace poured a glass for himself too.

-“I’m listening”

Justin took up his wallet and showed Trace a picture from the ultra sound.

-“Uncle Trace, meet Destiny Timberlake Callister, my daughter” he couldn’t hide his grin, and Trace stared at the picture in fascination.

-“Wow. It’s a girl, huh?” he turned the picture around, trying to make more sense of it. “I’d love to say she looks beautiful, but this picture isn’t really the most flattering”

Justin laughed lightly

-“She’ll be a beauty, all right! Have you seen her parents?”

-“Destiny…Interesting choice”

-“It fits. Well, anyway, after the hospital we went shopping for stuff…Oh, that reminds me; we’re getting a whole busload of stuff delivered next week, we need to work on the nursery.”

-“We? When did I get involved?”

-“When you moved in, my friend! You are lucky, though, you get to be cool uncle Trace”

Trace chewed on that for a few seconds.

-“Huh… I kinda like that! So, shopping, then what?”

Justin sighed.

-“I made her dinner, and we had such a lovely time, we were laughing, coming up with names, talking about shit, even hugging and if I didn’t know better I would say we were almost flirting… But then shit hit the fucking fan!”

Trace sat up a bit, he knew Justin was about to get to the good stuff.

-“Oh, God, no, you fucked her again, didn’t you!” he sighed, knowing his friend’s weakness for beautiful ladies.

-“No, I wouldn’t be this freaked out then.”

-“Well, you kinda were last time…”

-“Shut up, I don’t wanna think about that. No, I pulled down a box from her closet by accident, and when I went to pick it up, a bag had fallen out…”

-“A bag? Of what?” Trace got his interest back

-“Coke”

-“Fuck, no! She’s doing that shit? To your baby?”

-“No, I actually don’t think she is, but I flipped out, screaming at her, and the strangest thing happened… She got completely hysterical, hyper ventilating and stuff, thought I was gonna beat her up.”

-“That’s so fucked up! How angry were you?”

-“Furious! But I’d never hit her!”

-“I know, but what did you do to make her think you were?”

-“Just yelling at her, I think. She was like crawling on the floor, trying to protect her tummy with her knees, totally crazy! I had no idea what to do, so I just held her until she calmed down. And I felt so bad for getting her all worked up like that, she’s pregnant with my child for fuck’s sake, and I scream at her like a fucking whore! She was so fucking afraid of me she couldn’t even stand on her feet! What if I get like that with the baby?” he covered his face with his hands, sighing loudly with his disappointment in himself.

-“You’re not, you just thought she was hurting your baby, I’d say it was quite justifiable.”

-“No, it wasn’t. I lost it, and I may have lost everything I’ve build up with her. We both fell asleep while I held her, and when I woke up she was gone. The last I saw of her were her eyes staring at me, she was so fucking hurt, and I did that. I fucking did that to her.”

Trace shook his head.

-“You didn’t do that to her, Justin. Obviously someone else has, though, or else she wouldn’t have freaked out like that. You think it’s her father? Or an ex?”

-“I’ll put my money on her father. She told me she doesn’t have a family, but the whole world knows she has a dad she doesn’t talk to. I bet he used to hit her or some shit like that. That’s maybe why she didn’t want a father for her baby, he must have really fucked her up. And here I come acting the same way.”

-“Don’t blame yourself here, Justin. You don’t know what has happened to her, and you had every right to react if you thought she was doing heavy drugs while pregnant with your child.”

-“I threatened to take it away from her. Said I wanted custody”

-“Shit. You gotta talk to her, man. Make sure she knows what you’re all about, get her some help.”

-“Or maybe I can help her myself…” Justin started thinking out loud.

-“No, this is obviously a lot bigger than you can deal with, don’t do the whole shrink thing again. It’s never done you any good in the past.”

-“I’m stuck with this woman forever, Trace. Do you even understand that? Forever! “

-“I know, but maybe you are not the right person to fix her up”

Justin sighed a last time, finishing his glass and standing up.

-“I’m gonna go to bed, I have to try to figure out what to do next, how to handle this.”

-“And you have a few people to call in the morning.”

-“I know” he said as he left the room.

-“At least he’s back again” Trace mumbled to himself. “He’s becoming Justin again” 

He had to make some apologetic phone calls the next morning, Jess was not happy he stood her up on their date, and she had seen the photos the paparazzi took. He made up an excuse about Jordan not feeling well, and wanting him to stay.

The net was full of pictures from outside the hospital, the shopping trip and him outside her house. He sighed and closed his laptop. He needed to see her.

He jumped in his car and drove the now very familiar way to Jordan’s house. He had no idea how she would react after last night, but he knew he had to talk to her, rebuild what he had ruined. 

As she opened the door he looked at her expectantly, a shy smile on his face. She smiled a little bit too and stepped forward to hug him. He was taken by surprise, but took his arms around her and held her tight.

-“Please forgive me, Jordan. I’m not usually like that.” He said quietly.

-“I know, Justin” she whispered. “I know”

-“I was just scared, and I flipped out, I never usually loose control like that…”

She looked up at him from his chest.

-“It’s okay, Justin, you were just looking out for your daughter. I just got a little scared myself.”

He let his fingers stroke over her chin as he stared into those beautiful eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a female voice coming from the kitchen.

-“Jordan! Phone call!”

She got out from his embrace and walked to the kitchen with Justin following close behind. He stared at her outfit; a silk kimono just covering her upper thighs, and her tummy sticking out. It was one of the sexiest things he had ever seen.

As Jordan picked up her phone and went outside to talk privately, he turned and took in the precence of the woman in front of him. She smiled brightly at him, and it made him a bit uncomfortable. He didn’t know why he was so surprised she had a visitor.

The silence was awkward so he offered his hand to break the ice.

-“Hi, I’m Justin.”

-“I know” she smiled. “I’m Monica, her PA”

-“Oh, okay” He didn’t know what to say to her, what her relationship with Jordan was like.

-“So, the daddy-to-be? Excited?”

-“Yeah, I… Yeah.”

-“I love your music, by the way”

Oh, good, that was a subject he was more comfortable with discussing. 

Jordan stayed out on the balcony for a while after her conversation ended. She started thinking about last night, and how she had totally exposed herself to Justin. She wanted to know what his thoughts were, but then she knew she had to start talking as well, and she was far from ready for that.

When she left him on the couch last night she didn’t do it because she wanted to, but because he was getting too close for comfort. She had wanted to stay in his arms so bad, even after the horrible happening, she felt safe with him. And when he turned up this morning she spontaneously searched back to those arms, and the feeling she got when his fingers traced her face.

She took a deep breath before she walked back in where Justin was eagerly discussing music with Monica. 

-“So, Monica, Jack wants you to stop by the office to pick up some scripts. I told him I’m not gonna do a movie for a while, but he insisted on me looking through a couple.”

-“Sure, I’ll be right over. Justin, a pleasure meeting you, thanx for the tickets” she waived at him before she left.

-“Tickets?” Jordan asked surprised. Justin shrugged.

-“Yeah, I’m doing a show tomorrow, and she wanted to go”

-“Oh” she just said, wondering for a second why he didn’t offer her any. He probably thought she wasn’t interested in going, but she’d love to see him on stage.

-“So, should we step out in the sun?” he asked

-“Pool?”

-“Were you about to go for a swim?” he nodded at her outfit and she smiled.

-“A little exercise is important even when pregnant.”

He followed her out to the pool and watched as she took off her kimono and revealed a little white bikini as she slid into the water.

He swallowed hard. He was wrong earlier; this was the sexiest thing he had ever seen. Her boobs looked a lot bigger then he could remember from when he last touched them.

-“You coming in?” she asked.

-“I didn’t really bring extra clothes…”

She shrugged and laughed.

-“You’ve got shorts on, don’t you? They will dry in the sun later”

He smiled and took off his sneakers and t-shirt and dived into the pool. He jumped up right in front of her and made her laugh more. He loved the way she laughed, it was so real and infectious, and her eyes sparkled as she did it.

She splashed some water on him playfully, and he dove back down and pulled on her legs. She screamed in surprise and tried unsuccessfully to kick him under the water. He pulled her under and got up himself. She spit water when she came to the surface again, pushing him away.

-“You started it!” he giggled, but took an arm around her and hugged her tight. “Thank you for not being mad at me…”

-“Thank you for being here. For me, for our daughter…”

It was the first time she had expressed herself in this way, but it was a pleasant surprise for him.

-“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be” he answered and she let her hand slide over his chest. Once again they just looked at each other, and he put his hand over hers.

-“What happened last night, Jordan? Why did you…How could you think… What…” He swallowed while he tried to come up with a better way to ask her, but her eyes fell down while she bit her lip.

-“Justin, there are many things you don’t know about me. And I’m not ready to pour my heart out to you. I panicked, but I know in my heart you’d never hurt me.”

-“Someone has hurt you in the past.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement.

She took a deep breath and turned away from him. She wanted so much to talk to him, to make him understand why she was so screwed up and emotionally unstable. But she had only talked about this once before and that ended up horribly wrong.

-“Justin, you’re a wonderful guy, and I couldn’t pick a better father for my child. I like having you around, but don’t push me like this. We’re just starting to get to know each other.”

He nodded silently.

-“I just want you to know that I’m here if you ever decide to talk about it. I’m a great listener, and I usually give pretty decent advises.”

She looked at him again.

-“Thank you, I appreciate that.”

Suddenly his phone started ringing by the pool side and she watched him as he got up from the water to answer it. It didn’t take many seconds before she understood that it was his girlfriend. She felt a lump in her stomach, she didn’t like her at all.

She had only met her once, that time together with Justin, but she had heard of her, and she seemed to be a shallow fame whore who’d do anything for some good press. However she looked at it, she couldn’t get her head around the fact that Justin was dating her.

But maybe she was wrong about her. How bad could she be when this guy obviously had such strong feelings for her? But however rational she wanted to be about this, she still had to admit that she hated the fact that they were dating, he was too good for her.

Maybe it was selfish of her, but she silently hoped they’d break up. No, it wasn’t selfish; she was allowed to be worried about what kind of woman would end up as her daughters step mom. 

Justin excused himself a couple of hours later, telling her he had plans for the night. She nodded understandingly and decided to do something tonight as well. She hadn’t gone to a party forever; maybe it’d be good for her, getting Justin out of her mind for a while.

When Monica came back later with the scripts from Jack she invited her along to this fashion award show she had initially declined.

-“You want me to go with you?” Monica said surprised. She had never invited her to anything before, not unless it was to work. Maybe she was lonely, but she truly had changed the last few months, Monica thought.

-“Yeah, girls’ night out, fashion and Champagne… Or soda for me, though” she smiled.

-“I…Don’t really have anything to wear to an event like this.”

-“You’re about my size aren’t you? Just go up to my closet and pick something out. We’ll get Matt over here to do our hair and make up, it’ll be fun” She used to hate these parties when she was forced to go to them, but now she wanted to see some people again, take some compliments from strangers and feel attracting again.

Monica broke out in a huge smile.

-“I’d love to go, Jordan. I’ll give Matt a call.” 

She walked the red carpet with Monica, ignoring the paparazzi and stopping to answer reporters’ questions.

-“Miss Callister, when are you due?”

-“Early December, and I can’t wait!”

-“You look amazing, who are you wearing?”

-“This is Vera Wang.”

-“Beautiful! How are you and Mr Timberlake getting along? Is he as happy as you?”

She laughed at the question she’d normally find rude. But she had no problem talking about Justin.

-“He’s thrilled, he’s gonna be a wonderful dad.”

-“Any chance of getting back together?”

Her laughter was a little more forced this time.

-“Justin and I are just good friends” That’s all she wanted to say about this, so she quickly walked over to the next reporter, Monica right behind her.

They got in and she started her round to talk to different people, everybody telling her how pregnancy was complimenting her. She actually enjoyed herself, and she found herself glad to see all these people she never knew she cared about. She smiled and laughed and it was all natural, she knew she was glowing.

She was talking to a new actor who had a supporting role in one of her films a while ago, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Jessica standing there without her usual stupid smile.

She was completely caught off guard and just stared at her. She had never even thought about the possibilities of meeting her, or what she would say to her in that case. And now that she was face to face with her she felt how much she despised her. She was a phoney wanne-be, but she belonged to Justin and that made her almost hate her. She managed to give her a fake smile.

-“Jessica, what can I do for you?”

-“Can I talk to you in private, please?”