“I don’t know how you’re able to be here today,” Kim sighed. “You have your MRI after work, I’d be a nervous wreck all day…”

“I’m definitely nervous, but the kids give me a positive energy to focus on instead of dwelling on it at home.”

“Does Josh know?”

“Yeah.  It led to a long talk. His girlfriend dumped him, and we’ve decided to try dating.”

“TRY dating? So he’s not sure he likes you?”

“Ok, poor choice of words. We both made our feelings clear, and as fast as it all feels, we’re together. Boyfriend and girlfriend, which sounds weird at 39 and 46.”

“I didn’t know he was that much older.  Any kids?”

“No. No marriages, either. Just some big exes, for both of us. We’ve discussed some of that already, so…”

“But you’re together?  Not hiding your feelings anymore?”

“No hiding.”

“So do I get to meet him?” Kim wondered. 

“Not any time soon.”

“Seriously? You met Rory the first week you were here…”

“It’s too new. Eventually, sure.”

“Let’s go grab our class, but this isn’t over…”

…

Jenna got into JC’s Jeep, a nervous ball in her stomach.  The car was parked, JC wrapping his arms around her. 

“It’ll be ok, Jenna.”

“What if they find something?”

“Then we get you the best care money can buy.  Fly you wherever you need to go for treatments or surgery.”

“That sounds expensive.”

“I can make it happen. Even if I couldn’t, you know other people would help make that possible.”

“Justin,” she sighed. 

“I didn’t wanna say it, but yeah. Among other people. I’ve been through this before, Jenna.  It’s scary at first, but…”

“Who?” Jenna wondered. 

“My dad,” JC sighed. “He’s ok for now, but it’s always in the back of my mind.”

“I don’t need you worrying about me, too,” Jenna said, feeling like she was putting too much on JC.

“Hey,” he interrupted.  “I’m in this for the long haul. I’m not gonna walk away now. Maybe I went through that to help you.  But they won’t find anything, babe. You’ll see.  They’ll figure things out and you’ll be just fine.”

“But what if…”

“Don’t dwell on the negative.  It doesn’t do you any good.  Last thing we need is this to trigger another seizure.”

“You’re right. Ok, let’s go.”

“Pick what we listen to,” JC smiled. 

“You don’t mean that. You know what I’ll pick…”

“If it helps make this better for you…”

“Josh, I’ve had MRIs before.”

“In situations like this?” he asked, his voice turning serious.

“No. Are you gonna be comfortable?”

“This isn’t about me. And if someone catches me listening to it, it’s not the worst thing in the world.” 

He pulled out his phone, opening Spotify.  “Is this something you ever dreamed of?”

“Never in a million years.”

He tapped play on the “This is *NSYNC” playlist, Tearin’ Up My Heart beginning to play. He’d never imagined anything like this, playing music he made 20 years ago, but the smile on Jenna’s face made it well worth it.

She sang along, trying not to go all out with busting out her dance moves she remembered from their music videos and tours.  She knew it was awkward enough for him just listening to it, he didn’t need her to give a full on concert performance in his car.

They arrived at the hospital, Jenna not wanting to go in without JC, even to get herself checked in.  “It’ll be ok, you said you’ve done this before,” JC said calmly.

“This is different.  I could have…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word.  

“You can’t think like that.  I know what it could be, and I’m scared to death.  For the world to have brought us together just for me to lose you? That’s too cruel.”

“You feel that strongly about me, us?” Jenna asked.

“I do.  I’ve never felt like this before, Jenna.  I don’t want you to be late.  I’m just as scared of this as you are.  You’re not alone in this.”

He got out of the Jeep, opening her door for her, holding her hand as they walked into the hospital.  They followed the signs to Radiology, Jenna checking in as JC took a seat.  JC admittedly felt a bit exposed, being in a waiting room with people.  He had to give himself a reality check, not as many people would recognize him as he worried they might.  

He sat next to Jenna, his arm around her shoulder, neither of them saying a word.  Jenna closed her eyes, just focusing on waiting for this to all be over. She heard footsteps approach them.

“Holy shit, you weren’t kidding…” Kim said.  Jenna’s eyes slammed open, widening in shock of hearing her co-teacher.

“What are you doing here, Kim?  I told you you didn’t have to come, I had it all figured out…”

“I wanted to support you, Jenna.  Now I know why you said things were complicated…  You told me he saved you, and I didn’t believe it.”

“Can we not do this now?” Jenna asked, closing her eyes again.  “I just want to rest until they call me, then get to lie down in a tube while they take pictures of my head to figure out what is going wrong…”

She started to shake, worry washing over his face.  “Babe, you ok?”

“Just scared.  It’s not a seizure, I’m able to speak.  Just really scared of why they want me to do this.”

“It’ll be fine,” Kim said softly.

“You have a team of support behind you, alongside you.  We’ll be waiting out here for you,” JC said.

“I just wanna rest a bit before I can’t,” Jenna sighed, closing her eyes again and leaning on JC.

“Jenna Pollard,” one of the nurses called. 

“This is it,” Jenna sighed. 

“We’ll be right here,” JC smiled softly. 

They watched her good night with the back and then through the doorway and out of sight. 

“Thank you,” Kim said quietly. 

“For what?” JC wondered. 

“For saving her life that day. For taking a chance on her now. She’s told me about you, even who you were and I didn’t believe it.  But you’ve done so much for her, it’s a great love story.”

“I do love her.  It’s only been a couple days together, but I know, there’s no doubt in my mind that I love her.”

“Pretty sure she feels the same way.  She talks about you so much, that’s a very good sign.  When did you know?  Like, REALLY figure this all out?”

“After Jen left.  I mean, I admit things felt different that night that everything with Jen fell apart.  We danced to that new song with Justin, then Michael made us slow dance to Norah Jones…”

“OK, that was on purpose,” Kim laughed.  “No way that was a coincidence.  But you did feel something then?”

“I think so, yeah.  I didn't want to admit it to myself, I was so in love with Jen.  I’d been in a rut with a lot of things, even with Jen, but I’d always find my way out.  I didn't think I could feel that way towards anyone else.  It felt different, so I wasn’t sure what it was, to be honest.  I knew I cared about Jenna, making sure she was ok, doing what I could to help her.  But it didn’t feel like love.  Once Jen told me to explore it, the more I thought about things, I knew that’s what it was.  It was so different from anything else that it took me a bit to see it for what it was.”

“I know Jenna is very glad that you did.  Honestly, as much as she tried NOT to fall in love with you, because of Jen, she couldn’t help but fall deeper.  Not just a celebrity crush, but the real deal.  You two spent time together, getting to know each other.  I’d be surprised if you DIDN’T end up together, eventually.  She really did struggle with it.  Trying to keep herself emotionally distant.  She wanted there to be something between you, but then she kept getting in her own way, thinking you could never see her that way.  She wanted it so badly, but at the same time was afraid to want it.”

“I think we both did, to certain extents.  I loved Jen, I really did, and Jenna loved me and Jen together, so for things to end up this way, it’s not like we planned it.  If you’d told me the day of the accident that I would meet the woman that would change everything, I’d have said I already found her.  Neither of us saw this coming, yet we also saw it coming a mile away…”

They chatted a little longer before sitting and waiting for Jenna to come back out.  It had been the better part of an hour, JC starting to get nervous.  He opened his phone, going to Google to see how long MRIs took.  He was relieved to see they could take this long in general, that nothing more was wrong.  

He kept eyeing the door as it would open, his eyes brightening as he saw Jenna walk back out.  JC and Kim both stood up as she approached them.  They walked out of the waiting room and towards the exit of the hospital.

Once in the parking lot, Kim hugged Jenna goodbye.  “I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?  It’ll be fine, the kids will help a lot.  It’ll all be ok,” Kim said, assuring herself as much as Jenna.

JC got Jenna into the Jeep, heading back to her apartment.  Are you still ok with having dinner with me?” he asked gently, hoping she was feeling up for what he had planned.  “Nothing too much, but put on a nice dress and go out for dinner.”

“That sounds nice,” she smiled.

“Do you want me to go to my place and get ready, or wear something I brought to your place?”

“If you have something you could wear for tonight at my place, then you don’t need to go all the way home and back.”

“I’ll see what I have.  If I need to go home, I will.  I think I have something that will work.”

“Did you plan all of this? The date and having the clothes ready?”

“The date I’ve had in my head for a couple days, once we got together. The clothes, I tried to be ready for just about anything. I knew how I felt, so in the hopes of taking you out somewhere, regardless of whether we were together or not. If I thought it might put a smile on your face, I kinda went with it.”

“We’ll need to treat this like a real date, though.  I can’t have you watch me get ready.”

“I totally get that. I want that memory of seeing you, kinda for the first time.  I know you dressed up for the thing at Heart.”

“That was way different. I was going out for the first time in a long time, hoping to catch someone’s attention.  Not yours, but someone’s…”

“Well, you caught my attention regardless.  You would have no matter what you were wearing.  I’ll get ready first, take off for a bit before coming back to pick you up. I guess just give me a heads up on when to…”

“I’ll be ready by 7.  I know that’s not much time, it’s 5:00 now…”

“You take as much time as you need,” he smiled. “If we’re late, you’ll be worth waiting for.”

They arrived at the apartment, JC grabbing his duffle and going into the bathroom to change.  Jenna went into her room, looking through her closet. She turned when she heard the door open. 

“You got a hot date?” Kelly teased.

“Yes, actually.  I’m going on a date with JC Chasez…”

“He’s your boyfriend, I hope so.  You’ve kissed, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, he saw me naked, but that doesn’t count.  I was post seizure, so I had no real control of what I was doing.”

“Wait, what?!”

“I said I was hot, stripped down in front of him, even told him to look.”

“Well damn… Look at you being all fun and forward.  I respect him more though, that nothing happened that night.  Wait, what if tonight…”

“Oh my god…” Jenna gasped. 

“You’re so having sex with him tonight,” Kelly squealed. “I’m glad I’m working another night shift, give you some privacy…”

“He said he wasn’t in a rush to, so I dunno, now that I think about it.  Oh god, is he still here? Did he hear us?”

“I think we’re good, I hear what I’m guessing is his razor.  Trimming all kinds of things for you…”

“Stop.  He is not…”

“What are you wearing?”

“I was thinking this,” Jenna said, pulling out a black dress with a floral print. “He loves his floral.”

Kelly straightened up, hearing the bathroom door click open.

“Kelly, I’m gonna go out for a bit so she can get ready. I’ll be back.”

“Bye JC,” Kelly cooed. 

“Bye babe, I’ll see you in a bit,” JC called down the hall to Jenna.

“Bye babe,” she called back.  She waited a bit to hear the front door close. “What was he wearing?”

“He has a black leather jacket on and dark jeans.”

“Am I too fancy with that dress?”

“No. Maybe pair it with your denim jacket to dress it down a bit.  But you’re gonna look great. Just don’t go teacher mode.”

“Teacher mode?”

“That dress has a deep neckline. Don’t wear a tank underneath, let the girls come out to play.”

“Gotcha. I’ll wear my black flats though, I wanna be comfortable.”

“You mean walking to the car and into the restaurant?”

“What if he wants to walk around a bit or something? I dunno what he has planned for after.”

“You KNOW what is coming after,” Kelly said, raising her eyebrows.

“I did say I’m on birth control…”

“You’re SO getting fucked tonight. Just nothing too crazy, you still have work tomorrow morning.  Unless you just call out.  I mean, if I had sex with my super hot boyfriend for the first time, I’d call out sick to do it all day the next day.”

“I’ve already used up a lot of my sick time.  It’s a Thursday, I don’t think anything will happen. He’ll have me in bed at a decent time.”

“Yeah he will…”

“Enough, I need to get ready.”

“Lucky girl…”