Chapter 32

( 3 days later )

Kerrigan, Trace and Justin were walking around a local mall doing some shopping.  They were of course accompanied by Justin’s bodyguards and Kerrigan was growing tired.  They’d been there all morning and Justin still didn’t seem to be anywhere near ready to head back to the hotel.

Kerrigan found it funny that she got tired so easily now that she was pregnant.  Which certainly explained all of the exhaustion she’d been experiencing before she had found out, but it was still weird to her.  She used to be able to keep up with Justin on his wild shopping sprees, but now she just didn’t have the energy.  She was tired after the first hour and here they were a good four hours later.

Over the last few days Kerrigan had done a lot of thinking about her present state.  She was still a little worried about the whole thing, but the thought was definitely growing on her.  To think that she was going to be a Mommy.  That she had a small baby growing inside of her stomach.  It just amazed her.

Justin and Trace just laughed at her whenever she brought it up.  Kerrigan supposed that was their way of dealing with it.  She knew they still weren’t happy about the whole thing and held some resentment towards Cody because of it.  But they were trying to remain as supportive as possible.  Even if that meant laughing at her when she got all sentimental about it.  And she seemed to be doing that a lot more as the days passed.

But Kerrigan really couldn’t help herself.  The more she thought about what was taking place in her body the more she thought about what a beautiful thing it was.  What an amazing thing it was.  She kept telling herself that it happened for a reason.  That it was meant to be.

She had been brought up in a Christian home and though she wouldn’t consider herself a really religious person she did believe that God had his own way of doing things.  And she couldn’t help but think that this was one of them.  She was taking it as a sign of better things to come.  That her and Cody were meant to be together.  After all why would he allow her to have a child with a man she wasn’t supposed to be with?

After another hour of wandering aimlessly around the mall, Justin finally announced he was ready to go back to the hotel.  And Kerrigan couldn’t have been happier with that statement.  She seriously needed a nap.

They were making their way out of Saks Fifth Avenue as they walked past the baby department.  Kerrigan’s attention immediately diverted to all of the tiny clothing that was hung on the racks.  She paused to look at one of the small outfits, thinking to herself that she would probably need a lot of those things.  She would need to start preparing for that eventually.

Justin noticed that Kerrigan was no longer instep with them and stopped to turn and see where she had disappeared too.  He noticed her standing a few feet back staring at a rack of infant clothing.  It was weird for him to stand there and watch her inspect the clothing.  These were things they had never considered before, let alone stopped to look at.

Walking over to stand beside her, he nudged her in the arm.  “You want that?” he asked.

“Huh?” Kerrigan replied, not really paying attention.  She had been lost in thought.

“I said do you want that?” Justin repeated.

“Oh, no.  I mean it’s really too soon to be buying stuff.  I was just thinking about things and looking.” she shrugged.

“It’s never too soon to start preparing for something as life altering as this is, Kerrigan.”

Kerrigan gave him a funny look, thinking he was trying to be sarcastic.  “Are you being serious or are you just messing with me?” she asked.

“I’m being serious.  I mean this is life altering.  You need to start preparing.  Besides, I wanna buy the first outfit for the baby.  Since I’m gonna be Uncle Justin, I get to spoil the kid.  Might as well start now.” he smirked.

Kerrigan rolled her eyes at him.  “Only you would say something like that.” she smiled.

“Nah.” Justin waved her off.  “So do you want it?” he asked again.

“J, it’s really too soon.  Besides if I wanted it, I could buy it myself.”

“But I wanna buy the first outfit.  Come on, Kerr.  Pick out something and let me buy it.  So I can say I got to buy the first outfit for my little niece or nephew.”

“You’re not my brother, Justin.” Kerrigan scowled at him.  She didn’t even want to think of him like that, it was unsettling.

“Closest thing to it.” he shrugged.  “Come on.  Just pick something out.  Pleasssse!” he whined.

Kerrigan sighed and gave in.  If he wanted to buy the first outfit she would let him.  She felt like she needed to do something to make up for the disappointment she had caused.  “Fine.  But you gotta help me pick something out.  I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“Oh, and I do?  I don’t have any kids either, Kerrigan.” Justin argued.

“No, but you have little brothers.  You know more about babies in that light than I do.” she pointed out.

Justin nodded, she did have a point.  “Ok, well let’s look around and see what we can find.” he suggested.

Just then Trace walked up.  “What are you guys doing?” he asked.

“I’m gonna get the baby it’s first outfit.” Justin stated proudly, not looking up from the rack of clothing he was looking through.

“Huh?” Trace asked, thoroughly confused.  There wouldn’t be a baby for a while, he didn’t understand the need to buy anything for it right then.  Or why Justin was so engrossed in buying baby clothes.

“J, wants to buy the first outfit for the baby.  I tried to tell him it’s too soon, but he insisted.” Kerrigan shrugged.

“Um, ok.” Trace mumbled.

Trace, Mike and the other bodyguard Frank stood in the isle for a good half hour watching Justin and Kerrigan as they looked through the variety of infant clothing.  Discussing things like how big the baby would be.  What color they should buy.  The three men were rather amused by the scene before them.  If they didn’t know better, they would have thought that Kerrigan and Justin were the couple shopping for their first child’s clothing.

When all was said and done, Justin had ended up buying not one outfit, but ten.  Ranging from sleepers to onesies.  Keeping the colors as neutral as possible since they had no way of knowing what the sex of the baby would be yet.

As they were leaving the mall, Trace looked over at Justin and smirked.  “Only one outfit, huh?  You’re definition of one differs from everyone else’s definition of it.”

“Hey, they were all cute.  I couldn’t decide so I got them all.  Besides she’s gonna need all that stuff anyways.  It’s not like I wasted money.” Justin shrugged.

“I’d say buying stuff for a baby that’s not even here yet IS wasting money!” Trace stated.

“Oh, don’t be a grump, Trace.  You’re just jealous because J, beat you to buying the first outfit.” Mike laughed.  “And the second one, third one, fourth one, fifth…”

Trace cut him off.  “I get the picture!” he pouted.

Kerrigan laughed at the guys.  “Come on you fools.  I’m tired, I wanna get back to the hotel today.”

“You’re ALWAYS tired anymore.” Trace groaned.

“Well, I’m pregnant, I have an excuse.”

Trace snorted.  “Yeah.  And I can tell you’re going to use that excuse to your full advantage too!”

Justin laughed.  “Can you blame her?”

Trace looked over at Kerrigan as she walked a few feet ahead of them.  “No.  Not really.”

( 1 week later  ~ Thursday Orlando, Florida )

Cody paid the taxi driver and got out of the cab, pulling his overnight bag along with him.  He made his way up to Kerrigan’s apartment and dug his keys out of his pocket.  Kerrigan’s car was parked in the parking lot, but he didn’t want to knock.  He wanted to surprise her.  That had been his sole purpose in coming home for the weekend.  To surprise her.

After getting the good news earlier that week, that was all he had been able to think about.  His plan was falling into place perfectly.  Kerrigan being pregnant gave him a lot of power over things.   And he couldn’t wait to set that power in motion.

Unlocking the door, with the key Kerrigan had given him when she moved in, Cody pushed the door open as quietly as he could.  He figured since it was mid afternoon she’d be in the living room and he wanted to go unnoticed for as long as he could.

Setting his bag down in the hallway he quietly crept down the corridor listening intently for any signs of where she was at in the apartment.  The TV wasn’t on and he couldn’t hear any music, which he found odd.  She was always doing one or the other, it was never this quiet in the house except at night.

Peeking around the corner of the wall into the living room Cody found that it was empty.  No signs of life.  Then the thought occurred to him that perhaps she was napping.  She had mentioned on the phone that she had been extremely tired lately and had been sleeping a lot more.

With that thought in mind, Cody crept back down the hallway towards her bedroom.  The door was standing wide open, so he quietly peeked into the room expecting to find her sprawled out on the bed sound asleep.  But instead he found her bed perfectly made, Kerrigan no where in site.

Cody walked into the room.  He was thoroughly confused.  Where could she be?  She was no where in the house and her car was parked outside.  The thought briefly occurred to him that perhaps she was out with a friend, but then he remembered that the only people other than himself that she hung out with were all out of town.

Then it hit him.  Walking over to her closet, Cody ripped the door open quickly.  And just as he had suspected her suitcase was gone.  She was gone.  She wasn’t even there.  And he didn’t even have to ponder as to where she was at.  He already knew.  She was in Virginia with Justin.  And he didn’t doubt for a moment that she had been there the entire time.  Lying to him.  Letting him believe she had stayed home, as he had instructed her to.

Cody was angry.  He was beyond angry.  He wanted to call her up right then and there and scream at her.  But he knew that would do no good.  Yelling at her over the telephone would accomplish nothing.  Especially, when she was in the company of Justin and Trace.  If he called her and started a fight with her, those two would surely take that opportunity to poison her mind against him.  Especially, since she was now pregnant.

A momentary smile spread across his face wondering just how Justin had taken that news.  He would have given anything to have been there and seen that.  Cody could only imagine how infuriated Justin had become when he found out that Kerrigan was pregnant.  And with his child no less.  That thought pleased him.

But only for a brief moment, as the thoughts of where Kerrigan was and who she was with quickly overtook his mind once again.

Cody had half a mind to fly over to Virginia and drag her back to Orlando.  But he knew he would never get away with that as long as Justin and Trace were around.  No, he couldn’t show himself in front of them.  This was something he would have to do behind closed doors.

He would have to try to weasel some information out of Kerrigan the next time he talked to her.  Maybe there was some kind of clue as to when she would be coming back.  He knew originally that she was supposed to fly back with Justin and Trace that coming weekend because of that charity thing Nsync did every year.  Cody believed it was called Challenge for the Children, or something like that.

So he decided that the next time he talked to her, he would act cool and remain calm and pump her for information.  He wasn’t going to say anything to her about being back in Orlando and knowing she wasn’t there.

No he wanted to take her by surprise.  That way he could show her just what defying him meant.  She would learn sooner or later to listen to him and he was going to make sure of that.  He didn’t care what extremes he had to go to.

He was sick of playing these games with her.  She was his and he was not going to put up with being lied to.  And he refused to come second to Justin Timberlake.

Kerrigan was his girlfriend.  And soon she would be the mother of his child.  She was going to have to learn a few lessons.  And Cody was more than willing to teach them to her.