"I need you to look at this and find me a fucking way out." JC tossed a stack of papers across the island and they collided with Tyler's bowl of cereal, causing the milk to splash over the rim.

"Easy. What the fuck is this?"

"My contract. I'm fed up with Jive's fucking bullshit, and I'm hoping there's a loophole somewhere."

"You should probably have your attorney look at this Josh."

"You're almost done with law school. Consider it practice."

Tyler sighed and pushed his bowl to the side."Environmental law is a little different than entertainment law."

"Whatever. A contract is a contract. Consider it pro bono work. You need so many hours of that for graduation anyway, don't you?"

"Do you even know what pro bono means? Pro bono publico. Latin for 'for the public good.' I hardly think helping my millionaire brother weasel his way out of a recording contract qualifies."

"Ty, I just need you to do this for me. I want to know what my options are, and I'm trying to keep it on the downlow. For now anyway."

"I'll look at it while you're on vacation, is that OK? Its going to take some time. This thing is like 50-plus pages."

JC sighed and combed his fingers through his hair. "Yeah that's fine. I still can't believe they are doing this to me. Its just one thing after another."

That night at the campfire, it had been Eric who called to let JC know that Jive had now stopped all promotion of "You Ruined Me." It was something JC had assumed would happen, seeing as they hasn't done much promotion to begin with, and it was much harder to get a ballad picked up by radio. But Eric's call had just confirmed it, and the reality that his latest album was going nowhere sank in. He'd tried to avoid thinking about it the best he could for the remainder of his time in Minnesota, but as soon as he got back to L.A. he had been hellbent on cutting all ties with Jive. Sadly Eric hadn't been much help, just cryptically saying he was "securing other options," so JC decided to take things into his own hands.

"I'll find something in that contract, if it kills me," Tyler added, before going back to his breakfast. "So, on to happy topics, any special plans for the big birthday? Besides the obvious, which you don't have to tell me about. Trust me, I know all I need to know after Mal explained to me why you were," Tyler emphasized the next word with air quotes, "camping."

JC groaned in embarassement. "You waited two weeks to tell me you knew about their little pact? And here I thought I was in the clear."

"I was just waiting for the perfect time. Mal and Alicia told me all about it during karaoke that night."

"You are not allowed to hang out with Mallory anymore."

"Too late. She's coming to visit."

JC looked at his brother, dumbfounded and slightly choked on his water. "She is? Did you guys hook up?"

"No!"

JC glared at him skeptically.

"We didn't!" Tyler squeaked. "We just get along really well. We're friends."

"Careful, that's how these Janssen girls suck you in," JC warned.

"Well Mal's an Anderson, so I'm in the clear."

"Keep telling yourself that. When is she coming?"

"First week in August. She said she needed some time to save up some money."

"Did you tell her not to worry about it? She can come next weekend if she wants."

"I did tell her that, and she wasn't having it. In fact she scolded me for mooching off of my brother."

"Well," JC teased. Tyler shot him an evil glare. "You know I'm kidding."

"So anyway," Tyler continued. "Birthday? Plans?"

"Oh yeah. Well Dave has this awesome house boat. We'll probably cruise around on that for awhile and spend the night on the boat. That's romantic right?"

"I would swoon for days," Ty responded dryly.

"Shut up, you asked. Anyway, I need to go catch up on some e-mails."

JC grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down to his desk in his studio. He couldn't help but smile at the photo of Hannah and himself that was still haphazardly taped above his monitor. Decked out in their winter gear that very first day, it looked like they were a couple already, instead of strangers that had only known each other a few hours.

His computer finally loaded, and he clicked open his inbox to see he only had three emails -- a welcome sight compared to most days. He quickly junked a spam email and opened the message from Hannah. After they made love on their camping trip, Hannah told him how much it bothered her that they didn't really talk anymore. She missed their email exchanges and random texts during the day. He had to admit, he did too. It seemed every since they had gotten together, they only spoke when discussing plans to see each other next. And when they did get together, they were so focused the physical aspects of their relationship, that they didn't really talk anymore. They had started to lose that friendship that brought them together in the first place. And before things became even more disconnected, they agreed to fix it. They spent the rest of the evening cuddled in their sleeping bag and sharing stories about their families and their childhoods.

From: hjanssen@janssenspub.net
To: joshua.scott@gmail.com
Date: June 7, 2007 at 3:24 a.m.
Subject: Re: Would you rather

Would I rather eat a bar a soap or drink a bottle of dishsoap? What the hell kind of question is that? I'm not sure how that constitutes "getting to know you," as I would never be faced with that kind of situation in life. But even if I keep complaining you are going to tell me that's the point of the game, and no matter how ridiculous it is, I have to pick one. So just to save myself the torture of you hounding me, I guess I'll say I'd rather eat a bar of soap. I'm not completely sure why I say that, but it somehow seems like it would be less disgusting. But only barely.

Now for a REAL question. Would you rather save five of your loved ones or save 100,000 strangers in another country?

Only three more days! I just finalized all of the plans to have someone manage the pub while I'm gone (Rob had to back out, ugh.) It was a bitch to arrange, but it will be so worth it. Love you.

-h

JC couldn't help but chuckle. He was trying to keep his questions funny, but leave it to Hannah to go straight for the heavy hitter. Just as he was about to start typing an answer about how her question wasn't fair, and his answer would only make him look like a bad person, his phone rang. He picked it up blindly and answered without checking the caller id.

"Hello?"

"It's Eric. Hope you don't have plans this weekend."

JC sighed. Eric and his incompetiencies were the last things he wanted to deal with right now.

"I do, actually. It can't be rescheduled."

"Well it has to be. I booked an acting gig for you. You start filming Friday, and as of right now looks like it could run through the weekend."

"God damnit, Eric. You need to check with me before you book this shit."

"You should just be grateful you have any kind of job right now," Eric snipped.

"Great. Real fuckin' nice, asshole. Now what the fuck are you talking about."

"I booked you on 'Las Vegas.' Its a guest role, you play the boyfriend of Camille."

"Eric, I seriously can't. I'm going to Florida for two weeks. It should be on your calendar," he scolded.

"It's a big deal, JC. They want you to perform two of your new songs. I can't think of any other way to get your songs heard right now."

His mind was reeling. Eric was right. As much as he hated him right now for going behind his back and booking something, he needed this gig - especially if it would allow him to showcase his music. But how could he bail on Hannah? She had been on cloud nine about the whole vacation since he mentioned it to her, and she had gone through endless trouble to make arrangements so she could go with him. She would be heartbroken.

"Its only supposed to last two days right? Friday and Saturday?"

"This is what they tell me. I can't imagine it would take much longer. The role isn't that big, and its only an hour show. Shouldn't take long to film it all."

JC pushed down his anger momentarily. "Fine, I'll do it. You're right. It really is a great opportunity." It really would only put them two days behind. He could just change their tickets. It would still allow them 12 days in paradise, and they would still be there for Hannah's birthday, which was his main concern.

"I knew you'd see it my way. Gotta go. Love ya man," and the connection was broken. JC snapped his phone shut and whipped it onto the sofa.

"Fuck you, Eric," he muttered. He was not looking forward to calling Hannah.

***********

His mind was a blur for the remainder of the day trying to come up with the best way to break the news to Hannah, but in the end, he decided that if he just told her the truth she would most likely understand. He'd been laying on his sofa in the studio for an hour flipping his phone open and closed working up the courage to call her. Right as he was about to dial her number, his phone shrilled. It was her.

"Hi babe," her sweet voice poured through the earpiece. Even though he was down, he couldn't help but grin.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm good. Had a rough day. Really busy day at the pub, and two of my servers didn't show up. It was hell. They'd better not pull that shit when I'm not there."

"Does that happen a lot?"

"No, but they are new hires and I don't think they quite understand my expectations. Trust me, they'll learn real fast," Hannah warned.

JC chuckled. "I wouldn't want to get on your bad side."She giggled in response.

"No, JC, you wouldn't."

He sighed deeply, thinking now was as good as time as any to break the bad news.

"Speaking of getting on your bad side, I have some news for you."

"OK..." she said hesistantly, voice full of question.

"Eric booked a job for me. I'll be guest starring on an episode of Las Vegas."

"Well that's great baby! Congratulations!"

"Yeah, I get to perform two songs on it as well. So, after this Jive bullshit, it is a really great opportunity, actually." He paused. "I have some bad news though. It films this weekend."

"Oh." Hannah replied despondently.

He ran a hand over his face in frustration. "We can still go. We just have to wait until Monday."

"Oh! Well then no biggie! Don't worry about it. I thought you were telling me we can't go at all. I would have killed you. But two days - seriously, don't worry about it!"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! You don't have control over the schedule, I know that."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll change our tickets to Monday then. Thanks for being so cool about this."

"Well hey, my boyfriend is going to be on TV. I'm not going to argue that."

"Thanks for being so understanding, Hannah."

"Anytime. Just email me the new flight information. So, how was your day?"

"It was fine," he lied, but he knew the frustration was evident in his voice.

"You're lying to me."

"Well it was fine. I'm just trying to deal with all this shit. It's disappointing and I'm down on myself. That said, the Las Vegas thing cheered me up a bit. And of course, talking to you. That always cheers me up."

"I love you."

"I love you, too Han."

"Well I should go. I need to go run the dishwasher since my employees aren't here to help. I'll talk to you soon, OK?"

"K, night babe."He flipped his phone shut, thankful that she wasn't upset.

***********

He'd forgotten how much he enjoyed being in front of the camera, whether it be singing or acting. JC was surprised that his role was as large as it was and was looking forward to filming all of his scenes. The role was much better than some of the other television guest spots he'd done, and he was ready to sink his teeth in.

He glanced at his watch briefly and noticed it was already 6:00 p.m. on Friday night. Only one of his scenes had been filmed so far, and he had three more to go. Unless a miracle happened, it certainly didn't look like he would wrap tomorrow. He sighed, and decided he wasn't going to worry about it until tomorrow and would see where things stood halfway through the day.

Sprawled out on the couch in his dressing room, he was about to doze off when he heard a knock on the door. He opened the door to find the director standing there with a concerned look on his face.

"I have some bad news man. I know you're supposed to film your scenes with Vanessa tomorrow, but I just got a call from her. Her kid broke his leg this afternoon, and really messed up his knee. He's going to have to have surgery tomorrow, and she won't be able to make it back to the set until Wednesday, if she's lucky."

The wind was knocked out of him. He squeezed his eyes shut with anguish.

"So go ahead and head home. We'll see you back on the set Wednesday." And with that he was gone. No questions, no explainations.

"Fuck!" He screamed, punching the back of the sofa as he cursed. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

This is what he hated most about filming. He was really at the mercy of the director and the lead cast. All of his remaining scenes were with Vanessa and she was one of the stars of the show. If she couldn't make it to set, he had to wait. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

He sighed deeply and raked a hand through his hair. He dialed Hannah's number and waited with baited breath for her to answer.

"Hi! How's filming going?" He groaned inwardly. She sounded unusually happy today.

"It's fine," he said curtly. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure!"

"The woman I'm supposed to film with tomorrow, her son was injured and needs to have surgery tomorrow. We won't be able to continue filming until Wednesday."

He waited for her to speak but the line remained silent.

"Oh," she whispered quietly.

"I'm so sorry, Hannah."

Silence.

"We'll look, um, I should go. I need to, um, get back to work," she spoke softly and could hear her voice quiver.

"Hannah, I'm really, really sorry. There is nothing I can do about it. It sucks. I feel awful." He waited for her to say something, but she remained silent. "We can still go the following week."

"You know what, just forget about it." Her tone was meek and quiet, and her pain was obvious.

"Hannah-"

"No, look I have to go OK. I'll talk to you later I guess."

"Hannah-"

"Goodbye, JC."

The line was dead.