Lance’s mind was racing too fast to even think about trying to sleep. He decided that unpacking his things and taking a shower were better uses of his time. It would give him time to think about what he was going to say to Laura.

He let the water stream over his body while he tried to sort all the thoughts in his head. He had known Laura long enough to know that she wouldn’t even consider abortion as an option. While rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, he came to a conclusion. Lance decided that if she planned on adoption, he would raise the baby with the help of his family. He suddenly paused in mid thought. What would his parents think? Having children out of marriage had become socially acceptable, and of course, they didn’t think of him as an angel, well maybe his mother did. He was worried what their reaction would be.

Lance finished rinsing then dried off and dressed. He picked up the cordless phone off the bedside table and walked to the balcony. Sitting in the overstuffed chair, he slowly dialed Laura’s number.

“Hello,” Laura answered the telephone. Her voice sounded normal and calm.

“Hey, it’s Lance.”

“Hey,” her voice turned soft.

“How are you doing?”

“Better now. The past couple of days have been a little emotional for me, and I wasn’t sure how you were going to take the news.”

“It was a shock.” Lance let out a nervous laugh and propped his feet up on the railing. “But I want to do the right thing and be there to help raise our child.”

“Lance I am not asking anything like that from you. I can support me and the baby by myself” Laura sighed. “You don’t even have to tell anyone you are the father.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Lance did not wait for answer. “Do you really think I am going to let this child grow up without a father?”

“I just didn’t want you to think I wanted something from you, that I did this with some ulterior motive in mind.”

“We have been friends half our lives, we both know if you needed something all you have to do is ask me.”

“I know, but with your celebrity status I didn’t want to ruin anything for you.”

Lance sat quiet for a moment and Laura began to wonder if he was still there. “Marry me,” he said as if he had just solved all of the world’s problems.

“What?” She screamed in to the phone. “Have YOU lost YOUR mind?”

“I want to make things right,” he said boldly.

“I know this is the Deep South, but it’s not 1950. I’m not going to get sent to some distant relative because I got knocked up.”

“You’re right, and no one will think less of you as single mother.” Lance took a deep breath. “But I want my child to grow up in family like I did, a mom and dad together in the same house.”

“There is a difference, Lance.” Laura sighed. “Your parents and mine met, fell in love, and decided to get married because they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.”

“I know it won’t be a real marriage, we’ll make some kind of arrangement.” Lance stood and began pacing the balcony. “And if you are so worried about my image, how would it look if all of the sudden someone is having my baby?” Lance asked.

“Joey did it and from what I have heard the fans still love him.”

“Joey has Kelly, who the fans have known about for years. I love Joey but it was rather expected from him. We are all surprised there aren’t more little Fatones running around.”

“Lance….”

“Listen, everything has been crazy and it’s not all going to just go away. I think it may help if we can talk face to face. I can’t come up, but can you come down?”

“I’m sure work won’t miss me for a couple of days. I’ll tell them I have a family emergency.” Lance could hear her shuffling papers. “I’ll take the first flight to Orlando tomorrow, it will probably be in the afternoon before I get there.”

“Great, call me when you know what time you’ll be coming in and I’ll send someone to pick you up. Now, get some rest and I love you.”

“Lance.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to pretend that you love me.”

“I know, have a good night.”

“Good night.” Laura said. Lance heard the phone click and hung up.

The next afternoon Lance was flipping aimlessly through the television channels when heard a knock at the door. He walked to the entryway and opened the door.

“Hi,” Laura smiled.

“Howdy, you were supposed to call me.” Lance moved out of the doorway for her to come in. He grabbed her bag as soon as she walked through the door. “I’ll take that for you.”

“Lance, I am pregnant not an invalid.” She let him take her bag without any more fuss. “I didn’t want to interrupt anyone’s day to come get me from the airport.”

“Have a seat.” Lance motioned toward the couch. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure, iced tea sounds good. Thanks.”

“Can the baby have tea?” Lance asked.

“Yes, the baby can have some. If you are going to be like this the entire time I am pregnant, you’re not going to see the baby until he graduates high school.”

“You already know it’s going to be a boy?” Lance looked surprised.

“No, I don’t want to know ahead of time.” Laura placed her hand just below her bellybutton. “I just have a feeling it gonna be a boy.”

Lance handed Laura her drink and sat next to her. “This morning I was thinking about the whole situation. Actually, it’s the only thing I have thought about since you told me. I know marriage is a very big step, I thought maybe we could just tell people were dating for awhile. We don’t have to make up anything elaborate, just an rose colored version of the truth.”

“What do you mean by rose colored?” Laura asked.

“We tell everyone that we have been seeing each other off and on for the past year and we decided to take the relationship to a new level. All of which is the truth.”

“So what do we do, hold a press conference?”

“No, nothing that big. We’ll let the PR people take care of the details.”

“Why do I have the feeling I am about to see more of the Nsync spin doctors than I ever wanted.”

Lance called the WEG office to set up a meeting with Johnny and the PR department for the following morning. Lance and Laura decided that they would tell their parents and the rest of Nsync that night.

They used the speakerphone in Lance’s office to call Laura’s parents first. Lance was surprised at how well they took the news. He was sure there was going to be much more yelling, especially from Laura’s dad. After the phone, call Laura reassured Lance that it went over well, and he probably earned a few brownie points with her parents when he mentioned marriage.

Calling his parents wasn’t as easy for Lance; he knew what the tones in their voices meant. They were happy to finally have a grandchild, but disappointed that he had not kept to the traditional values he had been taught as a child. He could hear a few sobs in the background from his mother while his dad tried to assure him they were happy about the baby.

Lance and Laura decided to tell the guys in person instead of over the telephone. He called each one, told them he needed a group meeting and he would cook dinner. JC was the first one to show up later that night, which surprised Lance since he was usually the last person to show up. Within a few minutes of one another Justin, Joey, and Chris arrived.

“What’s so important that you cooked dinner for us?” Chris asked as he lifted the lid of one of the pots on the stove.

“Not that I mind, but why are you cooking us dinner?” Justin asked as he was eating croutons out of the salad.

“I’ll tell you during dinner. Now get out of my kitchen.” Lance said as he made shooing motions with his hands.

“Hey Laura,” Chris yelled.

“Don’t bug Laura either, Christopher.” Lance called after him.

Ten minutes later Lance had the dining room table set. He took a deep breath. These were his band mates and brothers; they would still love and stand by him in any decision he made concerning Laura and the baby he reminded himself.

“Dinner’s ready” Lance yelled towards the living room. Everyone began filing into the dinning room.

“Wow, you made country fried steak and mashed potatoes. You never cook like this for us it’s usually microwave dinners, this must be really big news.” JC said as he sat down.

“Yeah, it’s pretty big news” Lance said as he started to pass food around.

After everyone had filled their plates and begun eating Chris asked, “Are you going to make us wait until dinner is over or are you going to tell us now?”

Lance looked at Laura, who was sitting next to him, for an okay, she smiled. “Laura is pregnant and I am the father,” Lance said quickly in one breath.

Justin’s fork dropped to his plate and JC almost choked on the bite he just put in his mouth.

“See it really can happen to anyone,” Joey said with smile. “Now Brianna will have a cousin to play with.”

“This is good news, right?” Justin asked unsure.

“It’s not exactly the best situation but yes it’s good news.” Lance said. Laura let out the breath she was holding in relief.

“Well, then congratulations guys,” JC stood and walked to Lance and Laura to give each of them a hug. “When is the baby due?”

“Mid May,” Laura answered.

“Wow, we are going to have two May birthdays in the family.” Lance beamed.

“In the family?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, I asked Laura to marry me. She hasn’t given me answer yet, but I want to our child in a home like a real family.”

“What do you think management is going to say?” Chris asked.

“Not much they can say, right?” Lance answered. “I’ve set up a meeting with PR tomorrow morning.”

“We wanted to tell our parents and you guys first.” Laura added.

“What are you going to tell everyone?” JC asked. “You know we are behind you what ever you decide.”

“I know man, thanks.” Lance smiled. “We are going to tell them that Laura and I have been dating off and on and we have decided we wanted to become more serious.” Lance looked at the four sets of eyes staring back at him. “It’s not that far off from the truth.”

“What about the baby?” Justin asked.

“I guess we won’t mention that until we have to, we haven’t really discuss that yet. Hopefully we will be married by then.”

“Lance,” Laura said through her teeth.

“Then again maybe not.” Chris said under his breath.

The rest of the night seemed to go like any other night the guys were together. After dinner everyone when into the living to stretch out and watch movies. This made Lance feel a little more at ease about going to see the public relations staff in the morning.

The next morning Lance and Laura walked into the WEG conference room. Julie and Dan, from PR, and Johnny, their manager, were already sitting at the table. “Good morning,” Lance said.

“Good morning” everyone answered.

Lance pulled out Laura’s chair before he sat down. “The reason I asked for this meeting is because Laura and I have a situation that we are going to need some help dealing with the press.”

Johnny sat forward in his chair. “What kind of situation?”

“Laura is pregnant and I am the father,” Lance said matter of factly.

You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. Johnny shifted in his chair. “I really don’t know what to say. I never would have thought this was the reason you asked for this meeting.”

“It was quite a shock for us too,” Lance admitted.

“Kelly’s pregnancy, as far as we could tell, was taken in positive light by the fans.” Laura said. “We have discussed this and would like to do some damage control before it become very obvious that I am pregnant.”

“Okay, we can work through this. What did you have in mind?” Julie asked.

“We want to keep this as close to the truth as possible.” Lance looked across the table to each one for agreement. “That we have been dating off and on and recently decided to become more serious.”

Julie looked at Laura, “You know your life is pretty much going to be turned upside down.”

“It already has,” Laura answered.

“Well, you have the ‘On the Line’ premiere is in couple of weeks.” Dan finally spoke up. “We could start there. You know there are going to be several reporters there.”

“In November there is that week in the Bahamas.” Julie added. “I am sure we could set a couple appearances between the premiere and the trip.”

“What about the baby?” Johnny asked.

“We want to keep that quiet until she is showing and we have to say something.”

“Okay we have enough to get started.” Dan smiled. “I will see if I can set up something with Entertainment Tonight for the premiere.”

“Thanks.” Lance stood and held out his hand for Laura.

Dan was able to set up a short segment with ET for on the way to the premiere. With a smile on his face, Lance announced to the world that Laura was his girlfriend. He explained they had been friends for many year and one day things just clicked between them. The segment was to air the day after the premiere. As the two of them walked down the red carpet towards the theater Lance introduced Laura as his girlfriend to each report who stopped him. Laura wasn’t able to go to the after party with him because her morning sickness was quickly turning into night sickness also.

Dan and Julie were true to their word; they set up a photo opportunity during a time when Lance had returned home to Mississippi to attend a friend's wedding. He wasn’t exactly happy about spending the day at a bridal shop, but it was in his best interest to show he and Laura spending as much time together as possible.

During their week in Atlantis Lance and Laura weren’t able to spend much time together. Between Lance’s schedule for the concert taping and Laura feeling under the weather most of the time they barely saw on another. However, the made sure they were seen together after the show while all of the fans were still around the hotel.

After the Bahamas performance and a short trip to New York they returned to Orlando. Nsync was given a well-deserved break, and Lance spent as much time as he could in Mississippi with Laura. He made sure he was there the first time the doctor performed a sonogram.

“Just lay back, Ms Carruba,” the nurse said as she lifted Laura’s shirt. Laura jumped a little when the nurse started to rub the cold gel on her stomach. “Sorry, I know it’s cold.”

“Are you ready to hear your baby’s heartbeat?” Dr. Roberts asked.

“Yes,” Laura answered nervously.

The doctor began rolling the instrument over Laura’s belly. Lance looked at Laura, he was speechless, that was his baby heartbeat. Laura smiled as a tear started to run down the side of her face.

“Now let’s take some pictures of your little one.” Dr Roberts said as she changed instruments and put it on Laura’s stomach. “There’s your baby.”

“Where?” Lance asked.

“Right here,” the doctor pointed to the screen. “He kind of looks like a peanut right now.”

“Oh, I see it now.” Now it was Lance’s turn to have tears in his eyes. “Do you see it Laura?”

“Yes, I can see him and I already think he is beautiful.”

Dr. Roberts took pictures of the baby from three different angles. She gave the pictures to Lance as the nurse cleaned the gel off Laura’s belly.

Later that evening Lance and Laura were sitting on a swing in the Bass’ backyard looking at the sonogram pictures. “There really is a baby in there,” Lance smiled.

“Yes Lance, there really is a baby in there.” Laura sounded a little angry.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I believed you when you told me, but now I am actually looking at pictures of our child.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, it almost didn’t seem real until today.”

“I know this isn’t exactly how you dreamed your life would turn out, but I do want you to know that I love you. I’m not just saying it because I think that is what you want to hear, I really do love you.” Lance stood up and reached into his pocket. He knelt down in front of Laura. “I am always going to be there for you and the baby, but I want us to be a real family.” Lance opened a small box he had pulled out of his pocket. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”