“Did he tell you what time they were coming?” Emma asked from the couch, a magazine in her lap, looking over at Liz who was pacing, practically bursting with excitement.

“He just said that they’d be back in Orlando by this afternoon”

The past two months had practically flew by, considering how slowly the first four were. NSYNC was finally done with the touring, and the self titled album had sold almost one million copies by the time their last show had ended. Now, they just had the Disney Christmas Special booked and NSYNC was free to do as they pleased as they rang in the New Year ahead of them.

JC had called Liz and much to her excitement, told her he’d be stopping by as soon as they got back in the area. But that was almost four hours ago, and Liz didn’t know how much longer she could contain herself. Every time the phone rang or she thought she heard a knock on the door, she’d go crazy. Emma of course didn’t mind. The way Liz was acting was quite amusing to her. She was like a doll, one that’d react to any noise.

Emma was about to suggest Liz calling him again but the sound of the doorbell interrupted them.

“Are you expecting anyone besides…?” Liz asked, feeling her heart rate increase.

“Nope” Emma said simply with a smile

Liz squealed in utter excitement, practically running to the door when she heard the bell sound again.

She grabbed the knob and the door flew open, exposing the guy in the black pants, white tee and black jacket. His smile was wide, and she loved the way the corners of his eyes seemed to enclose making his eyes look almost like slits. His hair was frosted at the tips, and his shoulders looked broader. Or maybe it was just the jacket, who knows?

Like a reflex action, he took a step forward and she practically jumped into his arms wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and he held her around the waist, giving her a squeeze.

“Hey” he said happily, resting her down but her arms remained locked behind him. “I missed you too”

She sighed in contentment. “Finally” she giggled.

He grinned, shutting the door behind him.

He pulled her in for a deep kiss, something he nor her had been able to do or feel for the past almost eight weeks.

“I love you” she breathed pulling away.

He chuckled. “You too”

“Yea, yea. I love you, you love me, he loves her, we get it. Now get over here” Emma said with a grin, holding out her arms.

JC laughed and went over to her. “Hey Em” he said, hugging her

“How was the tour?” she asked

He grinned. “Fantastic” he replied. “It’s the best”

“Good to know” she nodded. “Where’re the other guys?”

“The car dropped us off at different places ‘cause we all wanted to see different people, before we got back to the house”

Liz smiled, wrapping her arms around him from behind. “And you came to the right place”

He chuckled, turning around.

“Man, I almost forgot how great you looked in person” he said softly

She blushed, while Emma gagged playfully.

“I’ll be upstairs” she said. “You got downstairs to yourself” she winked

Liz giggled, leading JC into the living room to sit comfortably on the couch.

“I’m so glad you’re back” she said with a small smile

“Me too” he said, kissing her forehead. “After the Christmas special Saturday, NSYNC is off until after the New Year. Then back to the studio for the next album”

She grinned. “That’s terrific” she nodded

“Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something” he said, taking her hand.

“What’s that?” she questioned

“What do you usually do for Christmas?” he asked. “Like, what’s your tradition?”

She smiled. “Well, the day before Christmas Eve, we usually fly down to Nashville where Emma’s parents are from and we spend Christmas and New Years with them”

“Her parents are in Nashville?”

She nodded. “How come you asked?”

He hesitated for a few seconds before telling her. “I uh, I’m flying out to Maryland in a couple weeks to spend the holidays with my folks and I uh…” he gave a light laugh and lifted his head to stare into her eyes. “I wanted to take you with me so you could meet them, plus we’d get to spend the holidays together. It was just an idea I had”

“Y-you want me to come meet your parents?” she said, happy but her voice was still shaky

He nodded. “And well, Heather and Tyler. I really want you to come with me Lizzie” he pleaded.

She sighed leaning back on the couch. “I don’t know Josh” she said softly.

“Why not?”

“I’ve never been good at the whole meeting parents, introduction thing. And then I’d be sending Emma home by herself, and…” She stopped talking and took a second to think about what he had asked her. “You really want me to come to DC with you?”

He nodded eagerly. “Absolutely! I’ve been telling them about this amazing girl I’ve been dating for the past few months and how incredible you are. They want to meet you. I wouldn’t have asked to take you with me if I didn’t think we were something serious Lizzie”

She gave a small smile. “What about Emma, Jace?

“Emma’s going to be with her family so it’s not your leaving her lonely over the holidays” he pointed out. “Look babe, I’m not going to ask you to choose between spending Christmas with your best friend and your boyfriend but I just wanted to let you know that I’d really love for you to come home with me”

She looked into his dark blue orbs, and saw how genuine his feelings for her going home with him were. She smiled. “Your parents aren’t the ‘You’ll-never-be-good-enough-for-my-son-’ kind are they?” she asked softly, half joking.

He laughed. “No, they’re really not. If anything, they’d probably love you who a whole lot more than they love me at times”

She giggled and squeezed his hand. “Then okay”

He perked up. “Really?”

“Yea” she nodded.

“Oh man, this is great” he said, pressing his lips against hers, sinking her deeper into the cushion behind her. “Will Emma be mad?”

Liz shook her head. “I don’t think so, but if she is, then I get to blame it on you” she smirked

“If she’s upset then I’ll talk to her” he smiled. “Thanks baby”

“When do we leave?”

“On the 24th” he replied. “Christmas Eve”

She nodded an ‘okay’.

“I can pay for your plane ticket if you need me to” he offered.

She shook her head, with a light laugh. “No, I could handle that part. I just got to worry about meeting your family. I don’t do that very often”

He chuckled. “They’re going to love you just as much as I do, don’t worry”

She smiled. “If you say so”

“You alright babe?” he asked with a frown, looking across to her then back at the road.

She exhaled softly and nodded, looking out the car window. “Just fine”

He squeezed her hand and smiled softly. “I don’t know why you’re nervous. If you could put up with me for all the time that you have, my family is a piece of cake”

She giggled, looking out at the snowflakes falling gently on the outside. She admired the middle class houses in what seemed to be a very well quiet, normal, friendly neighborhood.

She had agreed to spend the holidays with him, and to her appreciation, Emma didn’t mind. Not really, anyways. She had seemed a little upset at first but JC had gotten her to come around. He had been able to get Liz out her house and on and off the plane to DC without much trouble. She practically felt like she was going to throw up just thinking about staying with her boyfriend’s family, whom she had yet to meet, over the Christmas holidays. She somehow felt like she was imposing, though JC had begged her to come along with him. And now, they were driving through familiar streets that he remembered all too well.

JC caught her smiling to herself. “What now?

“Well I’m sorry I feel happy”

He chuckled. “Sorry”

“How much further?” She asked, holding in a breath.

He grinned. “Right here” he responded, turning into the driveway of a two story home.

“What!?” she squeaked. She felt like there was a tight knot in her stomach all of a sudden. She had expected him to say ’10 more minutes’ or something like that which would have given her some more time to try and relax.

He smiled as he took the keys out of the ignition and turned to her, squeezing her hand. “Before you give yourself an anxiety attack, you need to chill!”

She exhaled softly and nodded.

“C’mon, I’ll get the bags”

She nodded, opening the door to get out of the car. She looked around and smiled softly. It was a pretty nice suburb in which JC grew up. There were only a few snowfalls so you could still see the green lawn and the sky was a soft shade of light blue. She exhaled and placed a strand of hair behind her ear and mentally gave herself one last dress check. JC picked out the maroon turtle neck and dark jeans for her to wear, since she chose to be stubborn and decided she didn’t know what she should put on for the occasion. She didn’t want to wear something tight and come off as provocative or wear something too loose and come across as too conservative. She was somewhere in between, and if she was going to be spending the holidays with these people for the next week or so, she had to make a good first impression.

“And now we go in” JC said with a smile, taking her hand and led her to the front door. “Just chillax, alright?”

She nodded, watching as he used a key he found under the ‘Welcome’ mat to enter the house. She smiled softly. The house was silent, except for faint voices and laughter coming from a few rooms away. It was so warm, so comfortable. There were pictures in frames of Josh and two other kids she assumed to be his siblings that aligned the cream walls. He gently rested the bags down at the side of the door and smiled.

“Mom?” he called. “Dad? Ty?”

She heard the voices rise and within seconds, she saw two people come running down stopping at the end of the carpeted staircase, bright smiles on their faces.

 “Oh it’s just you” the girl blonde and pretty, about eighteen or nineteen remarked.

“Ha Ha” JC said sarcastically rolling his eyes. “Get over here!”

The two teens grinned and ran to him, trapping him in a tight hug.

“I missed you guys” JC said, high fiving the sixteen year old boy, dirty blonde, and giving the girl a quick kiss on the cheek. “Where’s mom and dad?”

“Right here” a voice sounded. Liz turned around to see an average height woman with a smile on her face, with short blonde hair wearing a light green dress walk over quickly and wrapped her arms around JC, who practically towered over her.

“Hey mom”

“How are you sweetie?” she asked, kissing him on the cheek.

JC nodded. “I’m great. It’s great to be home, finally. Where’s dad?”

“He went out to get some stuff from the grocery but he’ll be back in a while”

JC nodded and then turned to Liz who had been standing there silently and patiently, smiling as she watched JC unite with his family he hadn’t seen in months.

He took her hand and she put on her best smile, cheeks turning a slight pink when JC pulled her toward him.

“Guys, this is Liz” he introduced her. “Lizzie, this is my mom Karen and this is Heather and Tyler”

“Hi, it’s great to meet you” she greeted them smiling.

“It is pleasure to finally meet you Liz” Karen said, giving her a hug, smiling warmly.

Liz immediately felt all her nervousness wash away. “The pleasure is all mine” she said, as she hugged the woman. “Josh has told me so much about all of you. Thank you for wanting him to bring me”

Karen smiled. “Are you kidding? We’ve been dying to meet you! Josh keeps going on and on about this girl, so we just had to ask him to bring you”

JC smiled as he placed his hand around her waist. “See, you were nervous for nothing”

Liz blushed.

“I love the color of your eye shadow!” Heather complimented, admiring the way the dark brown contrasted with the hint of red.

“Thanks!” she replied. “You like makeup?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been trying to get the right colors to go along with my eyes for the longest time but the pale pink shades aren’t working with me”

“Oh, that’s because that tone is more set for blue eyes. You see, with your hazel eyes you could try more neutral colors like a soft brown or a gold shimmer like-”

“Come with me” Heather said excitedly, taking Liz’s wrist and speed walking toward the stairs.

“I’m stealing her Josh!” she called out to her brother.

Liz giggled while JC just grinned. “Don’t do anything to her Heather!”

He turned back to his mom and Tyler.

“She’s hot man!” Tyler said, punching JC’s shoulder playfully.

He chuckled. “Yea, I know”

Karen laughed and shook her head as her sons continued their conversation.

“C’mon let’s go into the kitchen” she said, taking her eldest son by the arm. “Welcome home Josh” she said with a smile.

“What’d you think mom?” he asked. “Be honest”

“Much better than the last one” Tyler mumbled.

She smiled and nodded. “I like her a lot so far”

JC smiled softly. “Great”

***

“Knock knock” JC said, knocking on the wooden door to Heather’s bedroom where she and Liz sat, her makeup kit sprawled out on the bed.

“Hey” Liz said smiling. “I’m helping Heather with a few beauty tips”

“Take it from the best Heather” he winked.

His sister rolled her eyes. “What’d you want?”

“Mom wants you downstairs. You’ve got dish duty”

She sighed and got off the bed. “We’ll finish up later, right?” she asked Liz.

Liz nodded. “Definitely”

JC stepped aside to allow his sister to leave the room, but smiled when she stopped to whisper in his ear. “I like this one”

He stepped into the room and went to sit on the bed next to Liz.

“You’re a beauty all right” he said.

She giggled, rolling her eyes and went back to placing the makeup pieces back into the kit.

“Since when does Heather like makeup anyways?” Josh muttered, looking at all the different cases.

“New boyfriend” Liz winked.

JC laughed. “I should have known. Man, I didn’t even know she was dating”

Liz shrugged. “She told me”

JC grinned. “You’ve been here twenty minutes and you’ve already got my sister telling you her secrets”

Liz smiled.

“So you like it here? It’s okay?”

 “Definitely” she nodded. “Now I just got to meet your dad. Your mom is really nice”

“She likes you too”

“I hope so” she said softly.

JC chuckled and took her hand. “C’mon, I think dad just got here” he said, hearing the front door slam downstairs.

“Three down, one to go” Liz said, getting up.

He led her out the room and down the stairs keeping a hold of her hand, but let go when he saw his father standing next to the couch, Tyler taking the plastic bags from him.

“Dad!” JC called out, a huge smile spreading across his face.

The man grinned, and the two of them hugged each other in the strong, manly fashion that made Liz smile.

“Glad to have you home. How are ya Josh?”

JC nodded, still smiling. “Great so far. I brought someone with me”

“So I heard” his father said, looking past him to where Liz stood.

Liz smiled and stepped forward to stand closer to the two men.

“Dad, this is Lizzie. The one I’ve been telling you guys about” JC introduced. “Liz, this is my father Roy”

She smiled widely and put out her hand to shake his. “It’s great to meet you Mr. Cha-”

“Call me Roy, Lizzie” he smiled. “Great to meet you. I’ve been wondering about the girl Josh here can’t stop rambling about”

JC blushed.

“He’s told me a lot about you too” She nodded.

Just then, Karen came out to join them. “I see you’ve met Liz” she smiled to her husband, then to the couple.

“You two hungry?” she asked, turning to the couple.

JC nodded. “I got mom to make pasta” he said to Liz, recalling her favorite dish.

“Oh you didn’t have to do that” she smiled, but grateful. “Thank you, that sounds great”

“Not a problem. C’mon, Heather and Tyler are waiting”

Liz was able to get through the dinner with much ease, making pleasant conversation with the Chasez family. JC thought she fit right in, loving the way she conversed with his parents, the way she had the girl-to-girl chats with Heather and joked around with Tyler in between. It wasn’t even as though she was just meeting them for the first time, but like it was a regular thing. She stayed behind to help Karen clean up after the meal and she watched some of the news with Roy, discussing their similar thoughts on the latest world news. She even played a round of cards with Heather and Tyler at in the living room while JC just sat on the recliner and watched it all. After much patience and pleading, he was able to say their goodnights and drag her away from his family and up to his room.

“This okay for you?” he asked, resting her bag on his bed.

She smiled. “I like it” she nodded, looking around the room. “So this is where you spent your days getting caught by your mom making out with girls huh?” she teased.

JC laughed, recalling the time his mom had walked in on him kissing a girl when he was younger. “There were only a few” he shrugged. “You’re only like, the eleventh”

She gasped, punching his arm.

He chuckled. “I’m kidding! Including you, there’ve only been about three girls I’ve been in here with. Maybe four if you count this really distant cousin of mine that I had a crush on”

She giggled. “So uh… You and me?” she looked at the bed, then back to him.

He cleared his throat and felt a sense of nervousness build up within him. “Well, I figured that if you were uncomfortable with it, you know I could just sleep on the couch or something”

“No, this is your room, your house with your family. You’re sleeping in here. It’s uh, no big deal”

“It’s not like we haven’t fallen asleep together before” he reminded her, bearing in mind the few times in the past he had come over and they had fallen asleep watching movies in the middle of the night.

She nodded. “I’m fine with it, I just need to change” she said, taking out a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt from her bag.

“I have to leave, don’t I?”

 “Or you can show me where the bathroom is”

He pointed out the door.”Next to Tyler’s room, to the left”

She nodded and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’ll be back”

He nodded and pulled off his sweater revealing his white wife-beater. “I’ll just be… in here”

She smiled and left, leaving him alone in his old childhood room. He smiled softly, picking up his keyboard off the desk and sitting down with it on the bed. He started banging on random keys, a goofy smile on his face.

“Noise to my ears” Tyler said, appearing in the doorway.

JC chuckled. “Hey man. Off to bed?”

“Yea, I’m expecting a call”

JC raised his eyebrows. “Girlfriend?”

Tyler laughed. “Nah, it’s almost ten and usually Heather’s new boyfriend calls around this time so I just lean back against the wall and overhear everything. It’s actually pretty entertaining”

JC laughed whole heartedly.

“So will I be hearing anything coming from this room?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

JC smiled and shook his head.  “No, we’re not doing anything”

“Seriously?”

JC nodded. “We’re in love and all but sex is just-”

“She’s a virgin isn’t she?”

“Hey so are you!”

Tyler chuckled. “It’s cool man. I like her. I just thought she was too hot not to be doing anything”

“Lay off teeny bopper” JC warned playfully.

“See ya in the morning Jace” Tyler chuckled.

“Night Ty! Merry Christmas”

“Hey, Christmas isn’t till the morning. I hope you got me something good”

“Goodnight Tyler” JC said, rolling his eyes.

He chuckled and turned around, almost colliding with Liz.

“Woah” she said, giggling. “Easy there”

“Sorry Lizzie” he said.

“It’s fine. You off to bed?”

He nodded. “See you in the morning! Hope you sleep well tonight!”

She smiled. “Thanks!”

She entered the room and closed the door. Josh smiled at her.

 “Hey” she said, greeting him.

“Hiya” he replied, resting the keyboard under the bed and standing up. “You look cute” he said with a smile. “Are you tired?”

She shook her head. “Not really, I mean it’s Christmas Eve. But I don’t mind”

He chuckled and pulled her in toward him and kissed her. She giggled and he pulled them both down onto the bed.

He lips made their way to her neck, gently suctioning the skin causing her to moan softly.

“Mmm” she sounded, a small smile on her face.

He brought his lips up to behind her ear, her leg lifting up to stroke against his.

“I love you” he said, his voice a little muffled.

She smiled. “I love you too”

His hands gripped around her waist and squeezed her gently, feeling her hot breath against his face.

Her eyes shot open, and she was fully aware of where this was going to go if one of them didn’t realize what was going on.

He planted a kiss behind her earlobe and she gasped quietly.

“Josh” she got in. “We can’t”

He stopped what he was dong and sighed, planting one last kiss on her collar bone before sitting up.

He nodded, running a hand through his hair. “I know”

She sighed and sat up as well, taking his hand in hers. She gave him an apologetic shrug.

He smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it” he said kissing her on her forehead. “We’re not going to do anything… I wouldn’t want our first time to be in my childhood room next door to my parents anyways” he joked.

She let out a soft sigh of relief and smiled. “I just... Marriage, remember? I… you know”

He nodded. “I know. I’m fine with just making out and being able to touch you anyways”

She smiled. “Thank you”

He smiled, getting up to flick off the light switch, the only glow coming from the moon shining through the window.

She lay down on her side, the side of her head propped up by her elbow. She could see a grin on his face as he settled under the comforter.

“What?” she asked

“You make really sexy sounds when you're being turned on, you know.”

She blushed. “Shut up Josh” she said, laying flat on her back, keeping a distance between their two bodies.

He laughed. “Willing to make that sound again for me?”

“No! Now you’ve got me all conscious and stuff” she mumbled.

“Aww” he said, rolling over to her. “I know how I can make you do it again”

“What do you-”

She was cut short when she felt his tongue slide into her mouth, his lip against hers in a deep, wet kiss.

“Mmm” she moaned out, unconsciously.

He pulled away and smirked. “Told ya” he winked

She gasped, nudging him playfully and right at that moment, they heard a series of snickers coming from either through the wall or out by the door.

“What the-” JC frowned, but then came to a sudden realization. “Go to sleep Tyler!” he yelled.

And the laughing immediately stopped. Liz giggled.

“Goodnight babe. I’ll see you in the morning” she leaned over t him and kissed him on the cheek.

“Merry Christmas Lizzie” he told her softly, using his fingers to swirl around the palm of her hand. “Thanks for coming here with me. Home, I mean”

She smiled and leaned her head back against the pillow. “I’m glad I came”

**

--- So the next week had passed by rather quickly. Christmas morning and dinner had come and gone, and Liz had gotten to meet the extended version of JC’s family later in the week. She cooperated well with each of them, and JC, to his contentment, got nods of approval from everyone. The New Year was spent as it was every year for the Chasez family; A big dinner party at the house. JC had pulled her into a corner and wrapped his arms around her from behind as the countdown went on, and so they rang in their new year together. Their phones went off constantly with calls from Emma, the guys, and various other friends and family. They had gone to sleep pleased that night, well, almost four in the morning, only to get up three hours later to catch their flight back to Orlando. A few tears were shed, mostly from JC’s mom and Liz even noticed his siblings tear up a bit. JC was used to the coming and going. He had been used to it for years now, so he didn’t let too much of his emotion show publicly and Liz didn’t question him when they got on the plane as she did see the hurt in his eyes.  They kicked off the second day of their New Year with a delayed flight, so JC taught her the art of keeping cool when all the sugar from the pixie sticks he made her shot got to her head.

And so 1999 went on…

“I want to move out” Chris blurted out randomly, causing the four faces around him to look up from their joysticks and in Joey’s case, a tray of chicken wings Lance had made for dinner the night before.

“And go where?” JC snorted.

Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I know we’re on the road 90% of the time but when we aren’t travelling I want a place to call my own, you know?”

Lance nodded. “I get where he’s coming from. I’ve been wanting to venture out too”

“Venture out of the group!?” Justin almost yelled

“No you idiot” Lance said, a chuckle in his voice. “Out of this house, or maybe Orlando. We’ve been living here too long”

“Can we even afford our own places?” Joey asked, swallowing a piece of meat. “I mean, we get paid but is it enough to buy a house?”

“I don’t think twenty grand is going to get you a house Chris” JC stated.

“This sucks! We sell over a million records, we go on a 34 city tour all over the country, we have girls screaming our names and we’ve done multiple TV appearances, not to mention what we got going in Europe. Shouldn’t we be getting a little more than a few thousand, I mean, I’m not talking millions but c’mon!” Chris said, his soprano voice raising with every other word.

“He’s got a point” Lance agreed. “A gold record, a tour, Europe, the fans, and we’re all still living here getting an ‘allowance’ from Lou”

“What’re you guys saying?” Joey asked. “Go up to Lou and Johnny and be like, “’Hey, we’re famous and we want more money’. You want to do that? We agreed that we wouldn’t use our status to get things like that”

“But Joe it’s not right that we’re getting paid such a little amount when we’ve got all this success going for us. It’s just, not right. There’s a difference in being greedy and a difference in wanting what we deserve!” Chris remarked.

“I bet it’s just some sort of mix-up” JC said, trying to assure his band mates. “We can just bring it up when we go talk to Lou and Johnny, and ask what’s been going on. It’s probably just got to do with a tweak in our contracts or merchandising or our taxes or something”

“Are you trying to convince us, or yourself?” Justin asked

****

“Lizzie get out here!”

Liz and Emma looked up from their desk, their eyebrows raised.

“What’s the matter Denise?” Liz asked with a sigh. “I’m working here”

“NSYNC’s on TV!” the red head cried out

Liz giggled. “Yea, they’re on TV a lot. I’ve seen them”

“No!” Denise hissed. “This is different, get out here!”

Liz frowned, and she and Emma made their way out to where the reception area was, and turned to look at the television screen they had out there.