The fair had been in town for a couple days and Justin decided to drag Laura out of her house to distract her thoughts for a few hours.

"So how long do the two of you have before deadline?" Justin asked as they moved up in line.

Laura looked up at him from her bag of cotton candy. "We have two months left."

"I'm surprised that you still have the strength to keep working on it."

"Well, I hate to admit it, but he is usually right when it comes to things like that." Laura mumbled between bites.

"You think you can make it?"

"I hope so. It got pushed back two more months for marketing reasons, so in their eyes it should be plenty of time for us to come up with perfection."

 Justin and Laura got on the bumper cars and gave chase to one another. They both were laughing as they stepped out of the ride. When they turned around the mood suddenly changed as they spotted JC. Rachel was pushing a stroller with Buddy sitting inside. JC was walking next to her with Nikolas in his left arm and a large stuffed animal in his right. Justin could see how uncomfortable Laura was becoming. She went to turn around and go in the opposite direction, but Justin grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. 

"Hey, Justin...Laura." He nodded towards her.

"Yo man. What's up?"

"Same as you, checking out the fair."

"Hi Laura." Rachel waved. Justin and JC continued to talk. Both were trying their best to keep up a conversation as they watched Laura and Rachel speak for the first time since everything happened. Laura snapped out of her gaze and cleared her throat slightly. "Hey, Rachel."

"I haven't seen you in a while. It's been almost two months!" Rachel leaned down and hugged Laura tightly. Laura was caught off guard by the hug and simply stood there with her arms at her side.

"I've been busy with a lot of things, since I got back from visiting my mother."

"Yeah I never see you at home these days...But I know the feeling, girl. We need to hook up one day and have lunch or something. Nikky misses his auntie." she said as she watched Laura put her finger up towards Nikolas who wrapped his small digits around it tightly and began to giggle. "We need to do some catching up."

Laura slowly pulled her hand away and waved towards the baby. "Umm...Yeah...That'd be nice. We'll have to see what our schedules are like." she replied as she looked towards JC.

Rachel pulled JC's arm down slightly so she could wipe the drool away from the baby's mouth. "Yeah I know. Me and JC have been rampant lately. It's hard for us to get a moments peace."

Laura watched the three of them and a million thoughts raced around in her head. She could feel the emotions piling up in her chest and needed to escape.  She needed to be anywhere by there.  Justin could see her discomfort and decided to step in. He grabbed her hand and looked down at her watch and said, "Damn Laura, is it 3:15 already? We better hurry up before we miss the tiger show."

"Yeah, we better get going too. He needs a nap." JC said. He tried to look into Laura's eyes as she was stepping away.

"We'll see you guys later!" Rachel called after them. Justin waved to her as he went to catch up with Laura who had started walking away without him. JC watched them closely and saw Justin take her hand tightly in his as they walked towards the other side of the fair. He  quickly stopped and handed Laura his stuffed bear and picked her up. She was startled and wrapped her arms around his neck for support as he swung her around cradled in his arms.

"Awwww...Don't they look cute together?" she asked as she patted JC's back and leaned up and lightly kissed Nikky's cheek.

"I doubt they are together." he answered dryly.

"What are you talking about? Just look at them..." Rachel pointed out. She watched them briefly and turned around and smirked towards JC. "Then again I guess you would say something like that. You're always trying to protect her."

"...Right." he agreed as he slowly turned around and lifted Nikolas in the air and swung him around like an airplane as they walked towards the parking lot.

"Justin please put me down! I'm getting dizzy and nauseous!" Laura yelled and she tried to shut her eyes even tighter. He almost dropped her in his attempt to remove himself from the line of fire.

"Damn!" she laughed as she tried to regain her balance.

"You okay?"

"I'm okay now that you put me down."

Justin rolled his eyes and punched her lightly on the arm. "I didn't mean that. I meant with seeing them here...Together."

Laura turned around to see if there were anywhere in sight. After finally looking over at Justin, she said, "No, but I will be...Thanks for the save."

"Anytime...So she doesn't know that the two of you are---"

"No she doesn't know."  Laura cut him off before he could say it.

"Have you thought about what you are going to do about that?"

"I have to go and see my lawyer this week about it. I'm hoping we can annul it so that there will never be any existence of of the fact."

"Well a lawyer can't brainwash you, Laura..." Justin immediately stopped. Laura looked back and noticed him standing there thinking. With his hand on his chin he looked over at her and said, "Wait...I take that back. For the right price they could do anything."

Laura pushed her body into his. Justin wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him as they made their way towards his car. He opened her door for her and walked around the other side to get in. He sat there staring straight ahead. Laura looked at him trying to figure out why he hadn't started the car yet.

"Do you want to go home or do something else?" he asked.

She thought about it for a moment and then asked, "Do you have anything to do today?"

"Nope. I'm all yours."

"Can we go back to that park you took me to that night? I just don't want to go home right now."

"Sure." he said as he started the car.

As they drove to the park, Justin wanted to know why Laura hadn't taken Rachel by her hair and pounded her face into the pavement by now.  Laura wanted to but knew nothing good would come out of fighting with her friend.  There'd be no point in trying to tell her and she and JC were married now…Especially since that would be a thing of the past fairly soon.  Laura knew that if Rachel wanted to resort to lying to win JC back, and he was dumb enough to believe her, then they could have each other.  Justin turned into the park and slowly drove down the dirt road.  Laura rested her head against the window as she watched the cards passing them by.  She was tired.  Tired of fighting all the time.  She'd been fighting all her life.  Fighting for her mother's love and affection, fighting for a chance in the business, fighting for respect, people's trust, and now for love?  No one should have to fight for someone else's heart.  It's either theirs to have or it isn't.

Justin pulled into an empty spot and turned off the car and turned his body towards her. "You don't think he loves you?"

"I just don't know anymore." she said as she opened her door and got out. He opened the trunk and grabbed a blanket and followed her to the spot they had been to before. Once he caught up with her, he could see her huddled in a ball on the grass and shivering slightly. He wrapped the blanket around his body and extended his arm out to wrap her inside it with him. She slowly looked over at him and smiled as she let her head rest on his shoulder. "I want to believe that he loves me, Justin. But everything I see is telling me otherwise."

"And what exactly is it that you see?"

"I see a man and a woman, baby, and dog strolling through the fair like a happy family. I see how content they look and what I don't see is him attempting to have anything to do with me...I don't see anything that includes me anywhere in that picture."

Laura looked up towards the sky as she continued to speak softly. "We have it planned out so that we don't even need to see each other until the very last moment to finish this album. He does his parts alone and I do mine...Alone. Does that point to any faint interest whatsoever in me?"

"It could mean that he still loves you and is scared and confused, Laura."

"Yeah, well it could also mean that he hates me. You should have seen the look in his eyes that night in the hotel room, Justin." He could see tears forming in her eyes and did not want to upset her even more. He decided to not speak about it any longer. He was just glad to be able to spend time with her. He didn't want to ruin the rest of the evening. They sat there quietly just looking up at the sky and watching a group of kids playing baseball in a nearby field.

When it turned dark they both decided to call it a night and head back home. Once there, Justin walked Laura to her front door. As she thanked him he lightly pushed the side of Laura's head. "It was my pleasure."

She started to close the door and Justin called after her. "Do me a favor?"

"Sure. What?" she asked.

"....Quit analyzing everything. Things will work out. You just have to give it time."

Laura smiled. "I'll try, Justin."

"Just remember...Things aren't always what they seem." he said quickly as he turned and walked away.

Laura slowly closed the door and headed towards her bedroom wondering if Justin knew something that she didn't.