Chapter 4

The ride back to the hotel was a silent one.  Kerrigan didn’t really know what to say to the guy.  She’d vaguely remembered seeing him around, but she had never really talked to him.  She didn’t really talk to many people on the crew, with the exception of a couple of the guys that had been on every tour she had been on.

When they reached the hotel, Kerrigan reached into her back pocket to pull out some money to pay for her portion of the ride, but Cody waived her off.  “It’s ok.  I got it.” he smiled at her, while paying the cabbie.

“Thanks.” she said, as she climbed out of the cab.

The two of them made their way inside the hotel, passed the few fans that were still standing outside the entrance hoping for a glimpse of the guys.  They showed their room keys to the guard at the door, and were admitted inside.

They silently crossed the lobby and made their way to the elevators.  Once inside Cody looked over at Kerrigan.  “What floor ya need?”

“I’m on 12.”

“We’re on 11.” he told her as he pressed the appropriate buttons.

It must have been the longest elevator ride of Kerrigan’s life, or so it seemed.  But when they finally did reach Cody’s floor he turned and smiled at her.  “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, I’ll see ya around.” she smiled.

Cody chuckled at her.  “You’re a woman of many words, huh?” he asked, throwing Kerrigan off guard.

“I’m a what?” she asked.

“A woman of many words.  Meaning you don’t talk much do you?” he said, standing in the doorway, holding the doors open.

“Oh, sorry.  No, normally I’m a little more talkative, I’m just really tired tonight.  Just wanna go to bed.  Sorry.  I promise next time you see me I’ll try to be a little more sociable.” she shrugged.

“Ok.  Well, I’ll be looking forward to that then.” he winked at her and then walked off down the hall.

The elevator doors closed, and Kerrigan stood there baffled.  Was he just flirting with her?  He winked at her.  No guy had ever winked at her.  Well, other than Joey or one of the other guys of Nsync and that was always in a playful manner.  Hell, Kerrigan was still tripping over the fact that he had called her a woman.  Finally, someone had noticed she was in fact a woman.

Smiling to herself Kerrigan exited the elevator when it reached her floor and headed down to her room.  All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep.  She was extremely exhausted.  Justin had, had her running around that day like a chicken with her head cut off, while Trace pretty much just hung out with the guys clowning around.

As much as she loved going on tour with the guys, because she loved all the traveling they did, there were portions about it that she hated.  Like how Justin got so caught up in everything going on around him and all the attention he was getting that he tended to ignore her presence.  It was like she just faded away into the background.  She really missed just hanging out with him and watching TV, or joking around.

Kerrigan sighed and quickly changed into a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt, she’d worry with a shower in the  morning.  Right now all she wanted to do was sleep.

She had just climbed into her bed, when there was a banging on her door followed by Justin’s loud voice.  “Kerrigan, are you in there?  Open up!”

“What now?” she grumbled, climbing out of the bed and making her way across the room to open the door.  “What Justin?” she asked as she opened the door, seeing both Justin and Chris standing there.

“See!  I told you she would be in her room.” Chris said.

“Whatever.“ Justin said to Chris and then turned his attention to Kerrigan.  “Who was that guy you left with?”

“Who? Cody?”

“Yeah, who was he?” he asked, pushing past her and walking into her room looking around as if he expected to find the guy in her room.

“He’s one of the crew members.” she replied, going back over to her bed and crawling in it.

“You know him?”

“Not really.” she shrugged, crawling under her covers.

“Ok, she’s here.  Now let’s let her get some sleep.” Chris said from the doorway, trying to prevent an argument that he was sure would erupt if Justin continued on the way he was.

“No.  I wanna know who that guy was.” Justin said, and Chris sighed.  He shook his head as he entered her room, allowing the door to close behind him.  At least he would be there to call 911 if needed.

“Justin, what is this about?  I thought you guys were at the club.” Kerrigan asked annoyed.

“I was at the club, and then I seen you leaving so I went to find out what was going on and I seen you getting into some cab with a strange guy.  I was worried so I wanted to come check on you.”

“You didn’t think I could find my way back to the hotel?” she gave him a dirty look.  “I’m not stupid, Justin.”

“Well, that remains to be seen.  You got into cab with some guy you just told me you don’t know.  That could be classified as stupid.”

“Ok, I’m not in the mood to fight with you.  I’m tired and I wanna sleep, so you can leave now.” Kerrigan sighed, sinking further into her bed.

Justin walked over and sat down on the edge of her bed.  “So you’re ok?”

“Why wouldn’t I be ok?  We just road back to the hotel together.  He seen me coming out, figured I was leaving and since he was heading back here too, he thought we might as well share a cab.  It’s really not a big deal, Justin.”

“How did he know who you were?” Justin questioned.

“Apparently he’s seen me around.  You know I do work for you, remember?” she growled.

Chris could see that Kerrigan was growing impatient with Justin’s questioning, and Chris knew her well enough to know that if Justin got her really pissed off, she was going to explode and that was never a pretty picture.  “Ok, J.  She’s here.  She’s safe.  Can we go now?  Kerr’s obviously tired, so let’s leave and let her get some rest.  Ya’ll can talk about this in the morning.  When you’ve had less to drink and aren’t being so dramatic.”

“I’m not being dramatic.  I was just concerned about my friend.  Is there some law against that?” Justin glared at Chris.

“Well, maybe you shoulda been a little more concerned while I was at the club, instead of ditching me.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t have time for your mellow dramatics.  I’m tired and I want to sleep.  You can let yourself out.” Kerrigan said, turning her back to him.

Justin sighed, sitting there for a moment in thought.  Then he crawled into her bed with her and wrapped his arm around her from behind.  “Kerr, I’m sorry I yelled.  I didn’t recognize the guy, and I was just trying to watch out for you.  You’ve been acting weird lately, I was just worried.  You know I love ya right?”

“Of course I do, J.  And I love you too.  Now get outta here so I can get some sleep.  It’s been a long day.” Kerrigan said, squeezing his arm.

“Ok.  I’ll see ya in the morning.” he said, giving her one more squeezing hug, before climbing out of the bed and making his way over to the door where Chris was standing.

Justin gave one last look in Kerrigan’s direction, he and Chris then silently left her room, to stand in the hall.

“Are you satisfied now?” Chris asked.

“Don’t start, Chris.  I was just concerned.  She’s never done anything like that before, and she’s like a sister to me.  I don’t want to see anything happen to her.”

“J, I don’t want to see anything happen to Kerrigan either, but she’s a smart girl.  She wouldn’t have gotten into that cab with someone if she didn’t feel it was safe.  She knows enough to know better, so you need to stop worrying so much.” Chris tried to reprimand him.

“You were worried too.  I could see it in your eyes, so don’t stand here and lecture me, Chris.  Cause you’re not fooling anyone.  But I think on that note I’m gonna head to my room too.  All this excitement has worn me out.  I’ll see ya in the morning.” Justin said and then slipped into his room before Chris could counter or deny anything.

Chris stood there momentarily with a scowl on his face at how Justin had just slipped into his room, not giving him the chance to respond.  But his scowl quickly turned into a smile.  Justin was right he had been worried too.  But he was just happy to see Justin taking care of his friend.  Chris wasn’t blind to the fact that Justin tended to ignore Kerrigan at times.  And he also wasn’t blind to the fact that it hurt Kerrigan very much.

He couldn’t count the times he had seen her just sitting off by herself lost in thought.  He wasn’t sure what she was thinking about, but he could always tell it was something important.  And more than likely related to Justin and his behavior in some way.

Chris knew Kerrigan pretty well, she was an easy person to read if you just took the time.  And he knew there was a lot more to Kerrigan’s feelings for Justin than friendship.  He’d seen the way she looks at him, and silently begs for him to look back.  But Justin was too blind to see what was right in front of him.  And for someone that knew the girl as well as Justin did, Chris couldn’t quite come up with any other explanation than Justin was in some kind of denial.  Or just didn’t want to see her for the woman she had become.

But all of that remained to be seen.  And it was not a problem that Chris was ready or interested in taking on.  He would speak up and remind Justin when he was being and ass and ignoring Kerrigan, but he wasn’t about to point out Kerrigan’s feelings to him.  That would just be asking for trouble.

Instead, Chris would leave it up to Kerrigan and Justin.  If things were meant to be, then they would eventually be.  He wasn’t about to tempt fate.