They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What they don't say is that those words are not necessarily true.

We got back from the hospital that morning and Justin called his mother. He didn't tell her why he needed her to come out, but let her know that a ticket had already been purchased and it was important. She didn't ask him any questions, but about a half hour later after Justin had fallen asleep I got a text message from her asking me if everything was okay. I responded, just come.

He had booked her a ticket for that night, but due to some bad weather in Tennessee her flight got delayed until the next morning. We were back at the hospital bright and early, but this time managed to get home before the sun was even fully up. All of the poking and prodding, and chemicals going into Justin's body were finally taking a toll on him, so once we got home he immediately went to bed with some green tea and crackers on his nightstand and a trash bucket next to his bed. Once I knew he was sleeping I got up off of the couch in the sitting room of his master bedroom and went downstairs to the living room. I turned the TV on and found myself turning the channel to ESPN chuckling to myself when I realized how much Justin has rubbed off on me, and not soon after found myself dozing off as well.

I shot up off the couch when I heard the dogs collars clanging together as they ran to the front door, and my heart slowed down a bit the minute I heard Lynn greeting them at the door. I walked through the foyer and whistled for the dogs before giving Lynn the biggest hug I've ever given her before in my life. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see anyone before, and just knowing that I'd have some help in the Justin department was a relief. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

"It's good to see you too sweetie," she replied backing out of the hug and giving me a once over, "How are you feeling?"

"Oh I'm okay," I sighed, "Tired and stressed but that's normal for me." For some reason I didn't question why she was asking how I was feeling since it's not a normal thing for her to do, but it was nice to actually have someone ask me. "Here let me take your bags. There's some coffee in the kitchen if you want some."

She walked into the kitchen with the two dogs on her tail while I put her bags in the guest room downstairs. "You know Emily I was talking to your Mama the other day and we were saying just how happy we were that you and Justin have finally decided to put whatever you two always fought about behind you and become close," she was at the island pouring her coffee yelling so that I could hear her.

"I have to admit," I replied walking back out and leaning on the breakfast bar, "I never thought this would happen, but I'm so glad it did."

"And it's so good to have you back. You know we were all really scared for you when Jake passed, so it's good to see you back to your old self now."

"Well...we can all thank your son for that one."

"Where is the brat anyway? He calls me here and doesn't tell me why then doesn't even greet me at the door."

"He's upstairs sleeping," I replied looking up at the clock and wishing I were doing the same thing.

"At 10am? Boy needs to get out of bed and start his day. Lazy ass, let's go wake him up." She lifted her coffee cup off of the counter taking a sip of it before leaving it on a coaster in the middle of the island. If she only knew, I thought to myself as she put her arm around my waist and we walked upstairs to Justin's bedroom.

I thought that maybe I should warn her about the state Justin would be in. It's gotten to the point now where he kind of looks sick and I didn't want her to be scared of her own son, but I knew that would lead to questions and I promised Justin I would let him tell her the news. She stormed into his room like a bat out of hell, and I expected to see him passed out on his bed, his face as pale as a ghost with his hand on the trash below him. However, I was quite surprised to see him sitting up in bed eating crackers and watching television like nothing was wrong. I stood at the doorway with my mouth on the floor in surprise while I watched his mother walk to the side of the bed to hug and kiss him. His chin was on her shoulder when he looked at me and winked, and all I could do was shake my head in shock. When I saw his mother begin to turn around I knew I had to act normal, so I closed the door behind me and sat down with my legs under me at the end of the bed.

"So listen," Lynn said just as Justin was about to speak. "I don't want any small talk, just get right to the point because I'm pretty sure I already know what it is."

The smile on Justin's face went away immediately and a straight angry line replaced it with his eyes darting directly over to me. "How could you Em? I specifically told you not to say anything to her!"

"ME?" I questioned pointing to myself as if there was another Em in the room, "I didn't say anything!"

"Oh then who did? You're the only other person that knows!"

"I swear on my parents grave Justin I didn't say a word!"

"Nice thing to do, swear on your parents grave when you're lying. I should have known you'd-"

"ENOUGH!" Lynn yelled to make us stop; knowing that once we start it's difficult to get us to quit it. "I think you need to apologize Justin."

"Why should I apologize to her? She's the one that went back on her word Mama!"

"No she didn't Justin. She didn't tell me anything."

"Then how do you know?"

"Well...I suspected something was up when you two jetted of to LA without even saying goodbye. Then you called me with some "news" that you couldn't share over the phone, and when I got to the airport I saw this, which only confirmed my suspicions," she said pulling a magazine out of her oversized purse on the floor next to her. Justin snatched the magazine out of her hand and I was pretty sure his eyes were going to pop out of his head cartoon style. I couldn't see what he saw, but my heart dropped into my stomach knowing that now not only did his mother know, but the whole world was about to as well.

"Justin it's okay we'll figure something out," I said not really knowing what else to do.

He was shaking his head looking down at the cover, and his mother for some reason had a smile on her face. "I understand why you didn't tell me sooner Justin, it's okay I'm not mad."

"No...No Mama, this," he turned the magazine around, "This is not true!"

My eyes shot to the magazine and I immediately grabbed it out of his hands and jumped off of the bed to prevent the other non existent people in the room from seeing the cover. There are no words to describe what I was feeling at that moment. I guess shock would be one of the closest ones but that does it no justice. I expected the headline to say "Justin Timberlake's Cancer Story," or "Timberlake's Secret Leukemia Battle," but it said nothing of the sort. Instead, there was picture of me and Justin walking out of the hospital yesterday holding hands, and under the pictures was the headline, "Yes! We're Pregnant!" 

Now don't get me wrong I've been linked to Justin before, and my face has been all over these tabloids but I have never EVER reacted like this, and neither has Justin. But this...this crossed a line that I was not ready to deal with, especially not now. And that damn picture looks so convincing too. Our fingers are linked together and I'm looking up at him laughing. It looks like he's reaching over with his free hand to pat my stomach, and the smile on his face was one that I haven't really seen in a couple of weeks. What they don't mention however is that we're holding hands to keep him from falling, and that we're laughing because I said something stupid to the receptionist inside on purpose just to get Justin to crack a smile. And magically the crackers that I was holding in my hand and that Justin was reaching for had suddenly disappeared out of the picture. Now, when we deny the reports people are going to ask why we were at the hospital, and this big "news" is going to make 30 more people hop on the paparazzi bandwagon and follow our every move. What will happen tomorrow morning when we get followed back to that very same hospital?

"This is bad...bad, bad, bad," I said still staring at the picture in front of me, scared to open it up to the article and see what some "source" had said about our pregnancy.

"Kids, it's not that bad. People would be finding out eventually. I mean I know you probably wanted to tell us first but some-"

"Mama stop talking." She looked at Justin like she was about to ground him for a month but before she could open her mouth to speak he continued, "Emily is not pregnant. And she certainly isn't pregnant with my baby."

"I'm sorry do I look like I'm pregnant?" I asked looking down at my stomach, "I mean I know I put on a couple of pounds but not nearly enough to make it seem like I'm with child-"

"Shut up Em," Justin said calling me a dumbass with his eyes.

"So this is a lie?" she asked pointing to the magazine that was still in my hand on the other side of the room.

"When has US Magazine ever been the truth?"

"I don't know Justin. I mean I guess never but the pieces add up. You two are dating though right?"

"No Mama, we're not," he said scooting over closer to her when a look of panic came over her face. He turned to me and I threw the magazine in the garbage can before sitting on the other side of his mother. "Mama I'm sick."

By the look in her eyes and the change of facial expressions I knew that she knew that this wasn't good. I saw tears start to form in her eyes before she let out a small forced laugh, "So make some soup Justin. You didn't need to call me out here to help you get over a cold." She didn't want to believe it. She was going to sit here in denial until he told her the facts. "I taught you how to make soup..." A tear fell down her cheek so I reached out and took her shaking hand in mine while watching Justin bite on his bottom lip trying to stay strong.

He was looking up at the ceiling and the bed began to shake when he nervously started tapping his foot against the mattress. "I'm not dying or anything...but...it's just..."

"It's leukemia Mrs. H, but they caught it early and after tomorrow he should be in remission." I watched her body sink further and further into the mattress, and tears fall faster and faster down her face. "He's been doing very low doses of Chemotherapy everyday for the past two weeks, and they say it's doing what it's suppose to. Once he finishes up tomorrow, he'll have to go in on Friday to run some tests and after that they're 99% sure that it'll be like nothing ever happened." Her spare hand went over her heart and she started biting her bottom lip just like her son was. I knew this was killing her, but the faster I got all the information out the faster she could digest it and we could go from there. "No one knows besides me and now you, not even Johnny. Hopefully all will go well in the next couple of days and no one else will ever need to know."

Silent tears began rolling down Justin's face and his mother was speechless. It was like someone was tearing my insides out when I found out so I can only imagine what it would feel like for a mother to hear that her son has Leukemia. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Mama," Justin said reaching out to put his hand in her free one.

"It's okay baby," she replied pulling him in for a hug.

I left them there in Justin's room to do the whole family thing. It was something that I didn't need to be a part of, nor something I wanted to be a part of. Justin needed his mother. He needed her to hug him and tell him it was going to be okay, and I know that she could take better care of him then I ever could. No sooner did I hit my bedroom two doors down did my cell phone start ringing.

"Hey Trace Face," I said throwing myself down on the bed with a sigh.

"So are you going to apologize?" he asked coldly.

"I'm sorry?"

"You know what Em, you are such a bitch. Accusing Bri of shit while you're lying to her face." And then it clicked, he saw the magazine.

I could deny it all day, and even prove that I wasn't pregnant but without telling Trace what was really going on there was no way of getting around the hand holding. "I know that you're not going to believe me Trace, but we're not dating. You saw the magazine and we're holding hands and I'm not going to deny that but there was a reason for it and the reason wasn't because we're dating."

"Real good alibi Em."

"It's not up to me to tell you! It's up to Justin and I can tell you that he won't be divulging any information anytime soon. So believe whoever you want, but I'm not going to fight with you about this because it's a waste of my time."

"And speaking to you is a waste of mine!" With that he hung up on me, and I threw the phone against the wall thanking God that Justin got me a cover for it or else it probably would have shattered into a million little pieces. Getting around this tabloid lie was not going to be at all easy.

***

Justin spent the whole day with his mother while I sat in the office and attempted to catch up on some a shitload of work that was just growing more and more every minute that passed. By 6:00 I could barely keep my eyes open any longer, so I turned the radio that was on softly in the background off and made my way upstairs to go to bed. I'm pretty sure the minute my head hit the pillow I was out like a light, only to be woken up a couple of hours later when I felt someone pulling the covers back on the other side of the bed. I opened my eyes, careful not to move my head so that I wouldn't lose the comfy spot on my pillow and watched him get under the covers next to me.

"Can't sleep Junior?" I asked.

"Nope," he replied plopping his head down on the pillow, "You mind?"

"Make yourself comfortable," I said not letting the realization of this being the first time I've ever slept in the same bed with anyone since Jake had died slip by me.

He didn't make any moves and kept some distance between us. Just as I was about to doze back off into LaLa Land he spoke again, "Thanks for today Em...I don't know if I would have been able to tell her."

"You're welcome," I said simply opening my eyes to see his closed next to me. I watched him until I was sure he was sleeping before closing my eyes again.

"You're my best friend too," he whispered when he thought I was sleeping, "Thank you..."