You could see the confusion and anger in both Hallie and Justin's eyes. "Why the fuck not?" he asked bitterly.

Laura stood up and paced the room before looking to the two of them to speak, "For as long as I've known, Rachel, other people have cleaned up her messes. If you go and tell him about this, all she is going to do is run away again, leaving us to pick up the pieces. It's going to yet again, be an unresolved issue between the two of them. He needs closure. If this is true, he needs to hear it from her lips, not ours."

"You know she will never tell him the truth, Laura." Hallie spat back rolling her eyes.

"Look, she is not my favorite person, but I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. If she doesn't tell him the truth, go ahead with your plan."

"They are going to be walking down the isle together in less than two weeks. You really expect that bitch to go up to JC and be like "Oh honey, by the way, Nikki's not your son? Come on Laura!" Justin was pissed.

After all their efforts, he couldn't figure out why she wasn't bolting out the door to tell JC the truth. This was her chance to get back the love of her life. From where he and Hallie stood, she was letting the opportunity slip through her fingers. Laura knew deep down inside that the chances of Rachel confessing the truth to JC were slim to none. But she also knew that Rachel wasn't completely heartless. She had to figure out a way to make her see the light.

~~~~~~Two Days Later~~~~~~~~~~~

Lance sat at the table in the small cafe, messing around with his two-way pager before shutting it off and returning to his burger. He and JC had decided to have lunch together that afternoon before both of them became too busy with other things to hang out alone together. Lance was as serious as JC when it came to business. The two of them could always talk about things going on with the business. Between all the pranks and immaturity of the other three men, they balanced it all out. Lance glanced over occasionally during conversation and noticed that JC seemed to be somewhere else, just nodding and agreeing with him anytime Lance would speak. "Something wrong, JC?"

JC just shook his head and continued to fork around in his food. He hadn't been able to think of anything much except Laura for the past 48 hours. Lance assumed it was women troubles. That was the only time JC got that lost and confused look on his face.

"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or are you going to mope around for the rest of the afternoon."

"I'm living a lie, dude..."

Lance sat back and listened to JC vent about the current events in his life...About how lately when he's sitting home with Rachel, all he can do is think about how much he wishes she were Laura. He explained to his best friend that even though he cared about Rachel, he was truly in love with Laura. "I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to get back together with her. I know I was trying to do the right thing by being with my son, but I have a daughter now."

JC's whole mindset for marrying Rachel had been thrown out the window the moment he found out that the love of his life was pregnant. "I don't want to have any regrets 20 years from now, because I gave up the best thing that ever happened to me. Kids feed off of emotions and they sense things that we don't even know exist. I don't want him growing up miserable because deep down inside, that's how I feel. I love Laura. But she doesn't want me anymore. She's so over me, that she and Rick went out and go engaged."

Lance set down his burger and sipped his coke before speaking, ""Well what did you expect JC? That she was going to pine over your forever?"

Lance felt he needed to reiterate the fact that at the slightest sign of trouble, JC ran out the door...Never giving Laura a chance to explain her side, nor giving her a chance to defend all the accusations that were being thrown her way. "Instead of focusing your anger on the person responsible for this whole mess, you took it out on the one person who stood by you through thick and thin. You said some pretty hurtful shit to her and about her for that matter. If I were her, I wouldn't want you back either, Josh."

JC just sat there nodding his head in agreement as he fiddled with his napkin. "Well, at least I tried right?"

A small wad of foreign material flew across the table, hitting JC square in the nose. "Try harder! That is, if you love her like you claim. She and Rick aren't married yet. Do whatever it takes to make her see that you are willing to do anything to get her back. You can't just throw up your hands after one failed attempt."

JC just sat there only half-heartedly listening to his best friend's advice. Lance could tell that JC was taking it all with a grain a salt. If Laura didn't come around, he knew that JC would stay with Rachel...If only to make sure that at least one of his kids had their father around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel continued to gossip with her makeup artist as she was getting ready for the next take on set. The trailer door flung open and neither woman noticed until it slammed shut, almost making the trailer shake at the force behind it. "Can you excuse us please?" Laura asked the woman, while glaring over at Rachel.

The woman could tell that she meant business and was about to walk out until Rachel called after her to stay.

"I need to speak to Ms. Stafford alone!" Laura yelled, her face red with anger.

Rachel was frightened by her tone and nodded for the woman to go. Laura locked the door behind her and walked over to the chair, starring at Rachel in the mirror.

"Who the hell do you think you are coming into my dressing room, like you own the place?" Rachel glared as she brushed her hair.

Laura put her hand on the back of Rachel's chair and spun her around to look her square in the eyes. "How long did you think you could keep up your little act? You didn't think I'd eventually find out what you were up to?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and went to turn back around and finish her make-up by herself. "What are you talking about now?"

"You've done some low down and dirty shit, but this is heinous. I would have thought you loved your son enough, not to pull him into any of your games."

Rachel spun around in her chair and lifted her brush towards Laura, "Don't you talk about my son."

Laura snatched the brush from Rachel's hand and threw it across the trailer. "Why not? You obviously don't care about him or you wouldn't be trying to push off JC as his real father!"

With that, Rachel froze. She didn't say a word. The look in her eyes said everything and it was all the confirmation Laura needed to know that Nikolas was not JC's son. She needed to sit down. In her heart Laura prayed she was wrong. She hoped that Rachel would be adamant about Nikolas' paternity. Almost in a whisper, Laura looked up at Rachel and said, "How could you do something like that...Not only to JC but to your own son?  What have you turned into?"

Tears were forming in Rachel's eyes. But as if by magic they never fell down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and starred at her own reflection in the mirror and then over at Laura's, "I'm not going to try and sit here and explain it to you. You'd never understand, but just know I had my reasons. You may think of them as idiotic, but to me they aren't."

"You are so fucked up it's not even funny. Do you know how many lives you've ripped apart because of this? And as much as I want to kick your ass right now, I think that this is punishment enough for you. To know that you are waking up every morning, telling lie after lie to the person that you claim you love so dearly. You actually are going to let your son grow up without ever knowing his real father. And God have mercy on you if Nikki ever finds out that his own mother, the main person he seeks for answers in life, is a liar...Well I just can't think of what that will do to him."

Laura stood up and was about to show Rachel the surveillance photos, but decided against it. She didn't need to show them to her anymore. Rachel had already confirmed the questions looming in her mind. She also wanted to ensure that if Rachel did confess the truth to JC, her reasoning wouldn't be to tell him before everyone else did. She stuffed the envelope in her bag and walked up behind Rachel, who was breathing deeply and struggling not to shed any tears. She starred at her ex-best friend's reflection in the mirror and said, "You've done some terrible things to me in the past, and somehow, I can still see the good in you. I just wish that when you looked in the mirror each day, you could see it too. You need to tell JC the truth or in the end that good will disappear."

Rachel watched her as she walked towards the door and asked, "He'll hate me. I can't bear to let that happen. So, what do you expect me to do?"

Laura was now halfway out the door, her foot inching off the last step, "I expect you to be a real woman and tell him the truth. For once, I just want you to deal with the consequences of your actions." Laura replied softly before leaving Rachel alone in the trailer.

PART 2

Justin and Hallie were getting antsy. It had been three days since Laura had talked to Rachel and there was no sign of her having a guilty conscience about anything. Justin went to call JC, but Hallie stopped him, explaining that JC and Laura were about to hop on a plane to perform their single together and it wouldn't be the right time to lay all that information on him. Justin reluctantly agreed before packing his bag to go with them. JC had asked the rest of the group to tag along. This was the first solo effort on JC's part and he needed all the support he could find.

He walked into the house leafing through the mail. He noticed a couple suitcases sitting by the door and wondered to himself which movie Rachel was acting in this time. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a soda before making his way into Nikki's room to say hello. But there was no sign of his son. He walked into the back bedroom to change and noticed that they were not in there either. He needed to talk to Rachel before she left and knew that if she didn't come home soon, their conversation would never happen or be rushed along as she booked it to an awaiting limo for a flight. As he walked back into the living room, he jumped when he saw Rachel sitting on the couch.

"Hey." he greeted.

"Hi." Rachel responded almost in a whisper.

"Rachel, I need to talk to you before you head out of town. It's really important. So please let me get all this out before you have to rush out of here for work again."

Rachel nodded her head and waited for him to speak. He found it rather odd that she was so quiet. JC went and sat down next to her on the couch, "I love Nikki very much and would do anything for him, but I can't…I can't marry you. I'm not in love with you. And I would think that you wouldn't want to commit your entire life to someone who didn't share the same feelings you have. As much as I've tried to do this, I just can't, Rachel. I love Laura. I will till the day I die."

Tears began to stream down her face. JC placed his hands on the sides of her head and wiped away her tears with his thumb. "What we shared was incredible! And I love you, but I'm not in love with you."

Rachel nodded and sniffled, grabbing a tissue to wipe her eyes. This seemed to be way too easy. JC pushed her chin up to look into her eyes. "You don't have to worry. Nikki will be well taken care of. I'll get you guys a place until you're able to find something you like. We'll set something up so that Nikki can be with me as much as possible."

Rachel got up from the couch and cleared her throat, "There no need for that."

"I know you can manage on your own, but this is something that I want to do."

"I know...But no. There is really is no need. I need you tell you something as well, JC...Nikloas..."

JC automatically assumed something had happened. Rachel was way too quiet and agreeable on everything he'd said. "What's wrong? Did something happen? Where is he?"

Rachel tried to calm his fears. "He's fine. He's with my brother at a hotel. I've got to meet them there in another hour." She cleared her throat once more, choking back the tears. JC...Nikolas isn't your son."

"What?" The words kept playing back over and over like an echo in his head as the reality of it all sunk it.

His instincts had been right, when he hadn't felt as attached to Nikolas as he'd become with Lacey. Anger pulsed through his veins like fire as he sat there thinking back upon everything that had happened. And everything she had said. All the lies. All the smiles and laughter. His face flushed of all its color and suddenly turned bright red, as if all the blood had rushed to his head.

Rachel could see that JC was about to go off, "I know you have got to be extremely upset right now, but please try to calm down and hear my side."

His legs shook and he let his head fall down below his shoulders as he clasped his hands together, breathing deeply to prevent himself from becoming violent. She found a seat next to him and tried to console him by placing her hand on his back. JC jumped up and began to pace the room, taking deeper breaths this time, shaking his head from side to side. "Don't you fuckin' touch me."

"I knew."

"You knew what?!" He asked loudly.

"I've always known about you and Laura. I just diluted myself into thinking that it was all in my head. If I didn't see it, then it wasn't true...Until I heard your speech and until I sat back and really watched what was going on right in front of my face. The marks on your necks, the exchanges of loving glances, the whispers when I was around...I knew...Ever since we were young I have envied her. I've always been jealous of how talented

she is. Her talent is almost effortless. With me it's been a major struggle. I felt if I could just hold onto her, maybe that thing she has would rub off on me. But it never did. I was jealous and I wanted to prove to her that she wasn't going to have you too. You were mine. You were the only thing that I didn't have to work at. Loving you was effortless. And if I wasn't with you anymore, she surely wasn't going to be. Plus problems with Jerry. I wanted out..."

JC couldn't believe his ears. Rachel went on to explain it all from the moment Nikolas became sick. She and Jerry had been at the clinic waiting for some word on Nikki. When the doctors came back and said Jerry's blood type didn't match the baby's. Jerry adamantly stated he was going to sue everyone within earshot for their mix-up. Because it had to be a mix-up. There was no way that the little boy he'd raised as his own, belonged to another man. Rachel had walked down to the fountain to get a sip of water and overheard a woman talking on her cell phone about how she'd screwed up their test results. Rachel confronted the woman about it and discovered that the woman who JC now knew as Cassandra, was actually on her way to tell the doctor and lose her job once Jerry found out. But Rachel stopped her. This was the open door that she needed. Cassandra was her key. Rachel instructed her to keep her mouth shut and saved her job. As repayment for her favor, Rachel had Cassandra change JC's paternity results to read that he was Nikki's real father. "You should have seen the hatred in Jerry's eyes when he saw those results. He just suddenly went cold."

JC couldn't help but chuckle sarcastically to himself. "And here I thought I was angry about the entire part where you lied to me about Nikolas. But the reason why you did it? Are you fucked up in the head?!" he yelled, pushing the coffee table over to clear a path to go after Rachel who was suddenly scared to be in the same room with him. She'd never seen so much anger in her entire life.

JC charged at Rachel, who was walking backwards to get away from him, until she found herself against a wall with nowhere to run. "You're a fuckin' psychopath! I fuckin' gave up Laura for you? What the hell was I thinking?!" He pounded his fist into the wall next to her head. The force behind it was so strong that he eventually pounded a hole into the wall, causing his knuckles to bleed. Realizing his own strength, JC retreated to the other side of the room, fearing that he would do damage not only to the rest of the house, but to Rachel as well.

Running his fingers through his hair with one hand and the other pressed firmly against his hip, he looked out the window and over at the house that Laura used to call her own. "And now I can't even get her back. She fuckin' doesn't want to have anything to do with me. I have to be away from my daughter because some…WHORE...Decided she was jealous of her best friends life and wanted it for herself. She's even fuckin' engaged to your brother. How ironic is that?" he laughed to himself, shaking his head.

"I love you, JC. I'm so sorry for what I've done. It was ne-"

Tears were streaming down his face as he looked at her and turned away, resting his hands on the fireplace, "Just go, Rachel. Just leave, before I kill you."

JC had never been so cold, and something in his voice told her that he was serious. She walked over to the front door and grabbed her bags and looked back over at JC who was holding a picture of him and Nikki in his hands. She needed to say something, but couldn't find the right words. All she could hear was the sound of Laura's voice in her head saying, "Be a real woman and tell him truth..."

"They're not engaged."

His whipped his head around, "Huh?"

"Laura and Rick...They're not engaged. They're only friends. The ring that you saw belonged to her grandmother. It's a family heirloom. I had stolen it from her mother's room when we were little. I recently returned it to Mrs. Charles. That's the only finger it would fit on until Rick gets a chance to have it resized for her."

Laura leaned down and picked up her bags and glanced over at him, "She loves you too much to move on with anyone else...Or to even let someone like me continue to hurt you the way that I did. I truly am sorry, JC." she cried before turning and walking out the door.