Later that Saturday

"Justin, just eat the sandwich and stop being a baby," JC pleaded, handing the youngest member half of his chicken sandwich.

"But there's a supermarket a block away! Why can't I just wait for them to open and go buy a box of cereal?"

"Because we have stage rehearsal in ten minutes and you'd be putting someone to inconvenience by asking one of them to go out and get you a damn box of cereal when you have perfectly good food here. Now just get something in your stomach or I'll call Lynn and tell her your acting like a spoilt brat!"

Justin scowled at his blue eyed friend. "If Lizzie was here, she'd go get it for me!"

"Yea, well she isn't here okay?" JC snapped. "And what nineteen year old still begs for a damn bowl of cereal to make him happy? God, J."

"What's wrong with Bert and Ernie?" Joey asked, appearing behind Chris and Lance who were looking on and listening to the bickering.

"Well you see," Chris started. JC and Justin turned around to hear what Chris had to say. "Bert here is trying to get Ernie over there to behave by refusing to give him his rubber ducky, or in this case, his cereal."

"Why am I Bert?" JC asked with an offensive frown.

"'Cause you're a bore!" Justin responded through a mouthful of bread.

JC spun back around. "Yea, well you take bubble baths with a rubber duck!"

"You have a uni-brow!" Justin fired back.

JC scowled, bringing his hand up to touch between his eyebrows. "I do not! And even if I did, at least I have eyebrows! All you have is that stupid, yellow sea animal!"

"You gawk at pigeons!"

"Okay, okay, enough," Chris said, putting up his hands to stop the two. "Boy, you guys really know how to get into character."

"I have a fiancé!" JC continued.

"I thought we were talking about Bert and Ernie here," Lance put in.

Justin ignored him. "A fiancé you left all alone at home!"

"Your girlfriend isn't here either smartass!"

"Britney is on tour!"

"Lizzie is planning a wedding!"

"She's planning your wedding!"

"Justin you don't even-"

"JC come with me," Chris pulled his arm and led him away from the other members. "We'll see you guys on stage in ten minutes!"

"Justin doesn't even know what he's talking about," JC muttered, pulling his arm away from Chris' grip.

"Jace, he's a teenager with mood swings. Just chill out for a minute, alright? It's been an off day. The stress is getting to your head."

"He's being a baby!"

"You're being a baby! Dude, relax."

"And why does he keep pointing out that Lizzie isn't here, huh? Is that his only argument that he wants to get to me?"

"Stop letting the little things get under your skin. It's just Justin. Ignore it and save your energy for when you're on stage."

JC scowled, shaking his head.

" And why isn't she here JC?" Chris asked, folding his arms. "If she was, I bet she'd calm you down on days like this."

"She isn't here because as far as I know, she's working and she's planning."

"So she's okay with you being out here for another few weeks? And she's planning alone?"

"Hey, why's everyone bashing me for something I had no control over? My career comes first. The same goes for the other four of you."

"Yea, but, she could have come out here with you and that way, she'd help us out by helping you keep some composure and you'd be helping her out with the wedding."

"I'll ask her to come out but I doubt she'd say yes. She's probably going over details with Emma or something. She can hold out till I'm home."

"At least ask. Maybe she can use a break. Unless, of course, you don't want her out here."

"Of course I want here out here. I just don't know if it's a good idea with everything we got going on."

"Dude, call her and talk to her. Clear your head because we have to get on with this rehearsal in five minutes, and I'm not going to get in the middle of things if you and Justin start arguing over nothing again! You guys aren't the only ones that are tired you know!"

"Fine," JC mumbled.

*~*~*

"Why's he calling when he knows I'm working?" Liz mumbled to herself, looking at her phone that was lighting up on her desk with JC's picture on the screen.

She sighed, thankful Emma wasn't in the office at the moment, and picked up the phone.

"Hey, I'm busy, can I call you back?"

JC frowned at her greeting. "Hey, it's me."

"Yea, I know Josh. You kind of called at a bad time. I'm at work."

"So am I but I wanted to talk to you for five minutes."

"Just make it quick," she sighed.

"I thought you had stuff planned today," JC remembered." It's Saturday."

"The wedding stuff?"

"Yea,"

"I cancelled it," she said simply.

"Why'd you do that?"

"If this is what you called to talk to me about Josh, then I don't have time for it right now, okay?"

"Why are you talking to me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you don't want to talk?"

"I just told you Jace. I'm busy."

"Hey, so am I but I still made time to call you!"

"Look, you wanted to talk about something?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to come out here for a while. To keep me company, you know?"

"'Here' being?"

"On the road, with us. You're missed out here."

"By you?"

"Especially by me, baby."

"Yea, well, Josh, I'm busy here in Orlando. I can't just pick up and leave whenever you decide you want me out there."

"I knew you were going to say no," he mumbled.

"Then why'd you even bother to ask me then?"

He sighed. "I don't know. I guess a little piece of me hoped that you'd say yes."

"Look, I can't right now, okay? I'm sorry but not this week."

"Lizzie, why not?!"

"The same reason you chose not to come home. Because I have a job to do."

"That's so not the same thing,"

"But it's close enough. You have fans that want you to entertain them and I have clients that are counting on me to plan their wedding. Seeing that I won't be planning my own any time soon, of course."

"What're you talking about now Liz?" JC groaned, getting impatient.

She sighed. "Nothing babe. We'll talk about this when you get home, whenever that'll be. I got to go."

"Fine but at least say the ‘I love you Josh' at the end!"

"I love you Josh,"

"Love you too."

They hung up and JC just stood there, shaking his head and shoving the phone back into his pocket.  "That woman is a piece of work," he muttered to himself. "She doesn't want to come out here to be with me? Then I'm going to get her myself."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*

Sunday morning

He didn't know how he pulled it off, he didn't know how he'd gotten his way and he didn't know how he'd managed to convince Johnny into letting him do it, but here he was.

"So explain to me one more time why you came back here again," Steven said, looking at JC through the rearview mirror. "And only for a day?"

JC shrugged, leaning back against the leather interior of the SUV's backseat. "We didn't have anything planned today. Maybe some sightseeing but I don't even think the guys are going to that. They're probably not even up yet. We head over to Los Angeles tomorrow so I figured I may as well come see how my fiancé was doing without me. "

"That's nice."

"Mhm,"

Steven snickered. "You're in some kind of trouble again, aren't you?"

"I am not," JC rolled his eyes.

"So you just randomly leave your famous pop group while on promotion for an album that's dropping in a couple weeks, to come home for twenty four hours just because you wanted to check up on your fiancé to see how she's doing without you?"

"Isn't that called being in love?"

"And I heard she didn't take your calls last night when you were trying to tell her you were coming home."

"Okay, so maybe I'm in a little trouble," JC admitted. "Nothing major, obviously. I think it's just the stress is getting to her head and I'm not exactly always there when she needs me to be, you know?"

"So how is you being here for a little less than a day going to change any of that? Either way you end up leaving again, therefore you just end up right back where you started."

"Except this time, I'm going to try to convince her to leave with me. She keeps saying she doesn't have the time or whatever, but then she acts all weird when I leave. I can't stay home and she knows that. So if she wants to compromise, she's going to have to be the one to come out and be with me and the guys on the road."

*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*

"I'm coming, I'm coming, jeez!" Emma mumbled. She speed walked from the kitchen to the front door. Whoever was standing out there was abusing the doorbell.

JC grinned when the door flew open before him and Emma returned the favor with a surprised smile.

"Hey, there's a pop star on my doorstep of my house!" she laughed.

JC chuckled, walking closer to give her a hug. "Very funny,"

She smiled, pulling away. "What're you doing here? I thought you weren't even in Orlando,"

"I got away for the day and came back home."

"Come in," she smiled, stepping aside to grant him entrance into the house. She closed the door behind her and turned around to face him.

"How come you didn't tell us you were going to be back? And why didn't you just use the key we gave you instead of destroying my doorbell?"

"I tried calling Lizzie but she wasn't picking up at all last night or this morning. I was actually kind of hoping she would be the one to answer the door. I kind of wanted to surprise her."

"Oh, well, actually, she isn't here."

"Where'd she go?" JC frowned. "It's Sunday."

"She told me she was going for a walk. She didn't ask me to drive her anywhere so she probably just went to the DVD store or a stroll through the park or something."

"She didn't tell you where she was going?"

"She isn't at your place?"

JC shook his head. "Nah, I stopped by there to get my car before I came over here. And besides, I live too far from here for you guys to walk to. She wouldn't be at the office?"

"We don't work on Sundays," Emma reminded him.

"So where is she? I came back here to see her. I wasn't planning on wasting the little time I have playing hide ‘n go seek."

Emma stood there and thought for a moment. "I think I know where she went. She's within walking distance and she's been quiet all morning. That's the only place she'd be... Or at least, that's where she usually goes."

He raised his eyebrows. "Where?"

"You don't know?" she looked at JC in surprise.

"If I did know, I wouldn't be asking."

*~*~*~*

JC frowned, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets realizing that Emma's hunch was proven to be correct. From fifty feet away, he could see her sitting on the ground, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on the top of her knees.

This was one of the last places on his list of places to find her. Hell, this probably wouldn't have ever been a guess if Emma hadn't told him.

He almost never came to cemeteries. He had only ever gone to about, three or four funerals in his lifetime and he only ever went just to pay his respects. He had never lost anyone close enough to him that would make him want to go visit a grave site and just sit there and think and... Whatever else people did when they came here.

They were the only ones in the whole memorial park and JC was getting slightly creeped out at the fact he was standing on someone's grave.  If it wasn't because the Sun was still out and that he had come to see her, he would have up and gotten the hell out of there.

He swallowed and started his slow stroll over to where she sat quietly. Careful not to make any noises whilst walking, he held his breath until he stood a few feet away from her.

"Hey," he called out to her softly, but just loud enough for her to hear.

She frowned, turning her neck around to look at the person that called out her name. Her eyes opened slightly wider than before but then her expression went back to normal.

"Hi," she slowly turned back around to her previous position.

"Mind if I join you here?" he asked, walking closer to stand next to her.

Liz didn't respond. Instead, she just sat there for a second and looked up at him and gave a small smile. She nodded.

"I missed you," he kissed her cheek, taking a seat on the grass next to her.

"You did?"

"You thought I didn't?"

She shrugged. "Didn't think you'd get time to."

"I don't have to make time to miss you when I'm away. It just happens."

"Josh, how are you even here right now? You told me yesterday that you guys were staying an extra couple weeks on the road."

"I uh, got away..."

"How?"

"I told Johnny that if we were going to be staying longer, I had to get some more stuff from home. He offered to hire someone to send me whatever crap I needed but I insisted that I wanted to get my own things from my own home. He knows how particular I am about that sort of stuff so he just gave in. I'm uh, supposed to leave again tomorrow afternoon."

"How'd you know that this was where I was?"

"You weren't at my house, you weren't at your house, you weren't at the office... I talked to Emma and she told me to check here. And well, here you are."

"Oh."

"What are you doing here baby?" he asked her gently. "I thought you had all these meetings set up with caterers and design teams and you said you were going to check out all the different locations you wanted to have the wedding in. Why are you here?"

She shrugged. "I didn't feel like doing anything so I cancelled everything I had lined up for this weekend and just ignored it all."

"To come to a graveyard?"

"Hey, I come here a lot more than you know I do."

"Lizzie, I've known you for almost three years. You and I have fallen in love, broken up, had ups and downs, gotten engaged and I have never once heard you say you were taking a day off of your life to go to a cemetery."

"I didn't think that sort of information was relevant to you. I liked keeping it to myself. It's a personal kind of thing that I just do for... me."

"So personal that you didn't even care to tell me about it?"

She sighed. "Yes, Josh. But now you know, so it's not a big deal. I just liked keeping it to myself."

"How often do you even come here?" he asked, looking around.

She shrugged. "Every couple months, mostly. Unless I'm in your company or too caught up with work, then I don't. When I feel overwhelmed or just want some time for myself, I just take the walk from home to here and sit and think or end up talking. I usually prefer to come alone."

"You never told me you did any of that."

"Yea, well, I just did."

"Who do you talk to?"

"My parents," she smiled. JC did the same.

"It sounds crazy, I know, but it makes me feel better about things."

He shook his head. "If that's what it takes for you to feel better, then so be it. They're your parents. You deserve to communicate with them in any way that you think is right."

"Connor's a few plots away," Liz recalled her old boyfriend. "I don't talk to him as much as I used to but my parents... It's them I confide in. I don't know if they can hear me or not but I try to convince myself that they can and in a way, I feel closer to them."

"I can understand that."

"Times like this, it starts to hit me that they're not here to help me. I know they're not here, obviously, it's just... It's kind of hard sometimes when I just want to talk to them and ask their advice on certain things and then I remember that I can't get a straight answer from them."

"You can talk to me babe, you know that."

"Not as much as I'd like too," she muttered.

"What does that mean?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"Aren't we doing a good job communicating," JC mumbled sarcastically.

"I'm mad at you, okay?"

"Well, duh Liz. I wouldn't have lied to my manager to get away from work for a day if I didn't think you weren't. I came here because I knew you had something planned and I started getting the impression that you were upset I wasn't coming home. Why are you mad at me because I had your interest at heart? I thought we could just get it done and have the rest of the night to ourselves. I want to talk to you. I enjoy talking to you."

"Well, am I not supposed to be mad that you just cancel on me the day before we had everything planned out and then hang up on me in the middle of our conversation? You were making me feel like you weren't taking anything about our wedding seriously and you were just leaving me to do everything while you worked, hundreds of miles away. And, ‘Just so we could get it done?'... I get that you were busy but you made it seem like you didn't care."

"You know what it's like when I'm on the road. I work nonstop. I just don't have time for any of that and I didn't hang up on you. I told you I had to go and you kept talking. You know I can't stay on the phone for long periods of time when I'm away."

"It was almost one o'clock in the morning!"

"And you know that that's how my work schedule works!"

"So yesterday when you called me while I was the one at work, did you just expect to drop what I was doing to just hear you talk about work for five minutes?"

"I didn't even call to talk to you about work! I called to talk to you about taking a little break from work so that we'd be together more often than we already are!... Or, aren't..."

"Then what about cancelling on me, huh? I get that you'd want to keep promoting and performing but you just called and told me that you were planning to stay without even taking into consideration that you were leaving me here hanging with everything that we needed to get done together. You wanted me to analyze our guest list of two hundred and seventy three people, book a location when we didn't even set a date yet, I don't even know what kind of food you want to have served and you and Josh, we haven't even limited our budget so I don't know what we can or can't afford! Not to mention the florist, the photographers, the-"

JC put up his hands. "Liz, just, stop, alright?"

"You're acting like you don't even want to be a part of it. You don't even want to talk about it!"

"I don't want to talk about it because you're driving me crazy when you keep bringing it up every five minutes! I thought the two people just go place to place meeting people and choosing things but the woman is the one who makes the decision and the guy just stands there and agrees. Why would I want to do that when I've got an already busy schedule resting on my shoulders? You do this stuff for a living so it's not that big a deal if I don't have much of an opinion."

"Where in the hell did you hear all that?"

"Movies? Reality?"

"The difference from our reality to the average person's, is that in case you haven't yet noticed Josh, you're never here! Those women who're planning their own wedding actually have their spouse with them to do those things with even if he is just standing there. It's our wedding. I want us to make the plans. I want both of us to have our own input on how we want this day to go. I don't want to do everything and then on the day you just show up. I want you to be a part of the process with me."

JC shook his head and looking up at the sky. "We're arguing in a grave yard. Fantastic."

She sighed. "Actually, we're practically sitting on my parents, arguing on their graves. Even more fantastic."

"You want to introduce me?"

"To who?"

He nodded toward the tombstones. "Your parents. This is my first time coming their burial place. I'm engaged to their daughter who's mad at me at the moment but I've yet to meet them. I should pay some respect to my future, late mother and father in law."

"Are you just playing dumb Josh or are you just trying to change the topic on why we're fighting in the first place?"

"Now, how I am playing dumb?"

"They're dead Jace!" she exclaimed. "What'd you want me to say?" She cleared her throat and looked at the tombstones. "Mom, dad, this is my fiancé Josh, your future son in law. Josh, these are my parents, buried in the ground."

"You've just never talked to me about them," JC said softly. "Not a lot, anyways."

"That in and of itself is a whole different story. We can talk about them another time. Right now... I just want to think. I just want to breathe. And I wouldn't have let you find me here if I knew you were coming home."

"I tried calling but you never picked up."

"Oh, right, my phone died this morning. I didn't bother to charge it."

"Yea, well you should have," JC muttered.

"I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I was just... tired and... Yea, I was just tired."

"I'm here for you, you know." He moved closer to where she sat and took her hand. "You can tell me what you're thinking, what you're feeling. I don't leave till tomorrow. We've got the rest of the day if you want to get some stuff done."

She looked at him and her eyes met his. "Josh, you know I support what you do, don't you?"

He nodded slowly. "I guess so."

"I do. I support you and I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of you. Of what you've accomplished, of what your music does to people. It's important to me. I would never, ever, ever tell you to give that up nor would I tell you to take a break from it if you didn't want to. I just miss my fiancé sometimes. And sometimes, when I do work with people who're planning their weddings and the guy is just standing around there and the woman is doing everything, I realize that she doesn't know how lucky she is to have her guy right next to her while some of us aren't that lucky."

"In my personal life, you are my number one priority Lizzie. But, overall, at this point in time, work comes first. I wish it wasn't that way, and I know no girl wants to hear that she's second but that's the baggage I come with."

"I know, I know," she sighed. "I just didn't know how bad it would get as you guys kept getting more famous."

"So, what'd you thinking?"

"I'm thinking we got engaged at the wrong time. We should stop all this for a while."

JC pulled away from her and stared at her. "Wait, what?"

She realized she had chosen a bad choice of words. She touched his arm, pulling him closer back to her. "No, I didn't mean it the way it came out." She sighed, trying to find a more appropriate way to say what she wanted to say. "I just... I guess I just mean we got engaged at a point in time that was just bad timing for your career. Maybe we should lay off this planning for a while and just... Go with the flow. Be like how we used to before a wedding came into our minds. Just happy and in love."

JC shook his head. "No, we're still planning. We're not putting off this engagement."

"What'd you mean we're still planning? I was the one doing everything. We're not breaking up or anything. We'll still be engaged. I'm still going to wear my ring. It's just going to be a while before we actually have a wedding."

"That was out of my control and you know it. That's not what I want. I proposed to you and promised that I'd marry you. I love you, and I will marry you. We're not putting off the engagement."

"Josh... We can't handle this right now. It's too much work. We have to send out invites, get a venue, hire a florist, caterer, photographers, a band, set a budget and not to mention we have to-"

"Screw it," JC muttered, standing and dusting off his jeans with his hands. "Screw all that stuff. We don't need any of it. I've got you, you've got me. That's what a wedding is about and I'm not going to wait until I get time off or us to do this. The record drops in two weeks and you know things are going to turn insane. If we wait any longer then this is never going to happen. Not any time in the near future anyways."

He outstretched an arm toward her. She frowned, accepting it and he pulled her up from off the ground.

She looked at him. "So what'd you want to do?"

"Marry you."

She rolled her eyes. "Yea, I know that, but-"

"No, I mean, I'm going to marry you." He looked straight into her questioning eyes so that she knew he was serious. "Now."