CHAPTER FOUR.
Jen.
"That's a wrap!" Chris yelled letting everyone know that the shoot was over.
"Thank you so much," I said hugging Chris my director for the video.
The whole week had been so hectic as I had photo shoots for magazines and the album, as well as the shoot for my first video to attend. Shelia came up next to me with my bags handing me my sidekick and Mike lead us out of the studio to the SUV waiting for us. The ride back home was quiet I had like 10 messages from Justin and I really didn't want to hear them so I ignored them. As soon as I walked in the door I realized my mistake as I was bombarded by Justin.
"Why haven't you returned my calls?"
"I was busy," I said walking through the kitchen. "Where's Sara?"
"She's sleeping," he answered running around me like a crazy man, "Listen we have a problem. Social services will be here in an hour."
"What!?"
"Yeah so we need to hurry up and get everything together." he said walking away.
We spent the whole hour yelling, arguing and bumping into each other trying to get everything together. Once social services showed up Justin was acting really strange.
"Stop acting so suspicious," I hissed and nudged Justin in the sides. He just grinned back and pulled me closer to him.
"So..." the Social worker looked between the two of us. "How are things going with you? Settling in okay with the baby?"
"Sure..." I began but Justin cut me off, as usual.
"Things are great. Couldn't be better. I mean having Sara around is just great. Exactly what the doctor ordered." I rolled my eyes, he was babbling and it wasn't flattering.
"Uh, wonderful," the social worker nodded and looked down at her notes. "So let's move on shall we? We'd like to know a bit more, about Sara's parents. Is that okay with you?"
"What does it have to do with anything?" I asked before Justin could jump in again and make us look bad. The social worker smiled at me and continued.
"Well, it's just for our records. Nothing too bad. Promise," she replied and I nodded. "Okay?"
"Ok," I answered and looked at Justin who nodded back and without warning leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips.
"Sure. Fire away," he beamed and pinched my sides. I winced and discreetly slapped his hand away.
"Alright then," the social worker began and looked back at her notes. "What can you tell me about Sara's birth father? Was he a good guy? Not into drugs and such?" Justin looked at me and I knew that was my cue. I cleared my throat and felt Justin's hand creep up my side.
"Well he wasn't amazing," I began and then realized what I'd just said could be taken out of context if any of this got out to the public. "I mean he wasn't into drugs or anything bad, he was just not ready to be a father and we all knew it. I think Crystal did too."
"Crystal..... Ah yes. Sara's mother," the social worker nodded. "She knew he didn't want to be a father? So why did she keep the baby you think?"
"Uh..." I faltered and looked down at my hands. Justin caught on and stepped in.
"Why would she not? Sara is a perfect little angel and deserves to be here. More than you and I," Justin said and I felt his lips brush against my ear. "You okay babe?"
"Yeah," I managed to whisper back and looked up at him. The social worker didn't miss a beat.
"Well I'm glad you think about Sara like that," she smiled and looked back at her notes. "So tell me about Crystal. How was she as a person?"
"She was the best," I whispered and could feel myself bubbling up at the thought of my friend. "No one could compare to her."
"Really?" the woman looked at her notes and gave a low 'hmm', causing both Justin and I to snap our heads up and look at her.
"What does that mean?" I didn't mean to be so harsh and couldn't stop the words as they past my lips.
"Baby..." Justin hissed under his breath and pinched my side causing me to jump.
"Nothing," she smiled at the tow of us. "Was she into drugs and such before she got pregnant?"
"What?" I asked and tried to stand up but Justin grabbed hold of me before I could. "No! Of course not!"
"Okay," the social worker said and looked a bit scared. "No need to get upset Mrs. Timberlake I was just asking what I had to."
"Had to?" I asked and tried again to stand up, this time Justin grabbed my hand and I yanked it away, glaring at him angrily. "Justin don't you..."
"Jen!" He warned and looked between me and the social worker. "Try and relax okay baby?"
"Baby? Don't you baby me!" I snapped and smacked his hand away from my side and stood up angrily.
"Mrs Timberlake please..."
"No! This is not right!" I interrupted her, ignoring Justin's crest-fallen face as I ranted on and on without a care. "How can you question me? Do you think I'm lying to you?"
"Mrs Timberlake..." she tried again but I refused to let her finish.
"Forget it," I snapped and turned to Justin. "I'm going to bed." And without waiting for his reply I walked over to Sara's playpen and picked her up, before stalking out of the room angrily.
The morning after, I woke up after hearing Sara babbling on the bed. I looked around for Justin but he was no where to be found so I just shrugged and got up. As I was dressing Sara, Sheila walked in and tapped my shoulder.
"Hey Jen," she said.
"Hey Sheila. How'd you get in?" I asked her turning around.
"Justin let me in before he went out," Shelia grinned and tickled Sara's foot. "He told me to let you know that he and Trace went golfing with some friends and would be back later."
"Oh ok," I nodded and picked Sara up. "So what's our plan for today?"
"Well you have a phone interview with a magazine in about an hour," Sheila informed me, "Apart from that nothing."
"Good because I need to go pick up a few things from the grocery store. You up for that?"
"Sure," Shelia nodded and took out her phone. "We can go after the interview. Let me just call Mike and let him know. Why don't you go down and grab something to eat before then?"
"Ok," I nodded and watched her for a moment as she called Mike. "I'll see you downstairs."
"Ok," she smiled and waved me off as I left the room with Sara on my hip.
After the interview Shelia called me and I strapped Sara into her car seat and went with her and Sheila to the grocery store.
"What are you doing? Mike asked me from the front seat as he saw me flip open my phone.
"Calling Justin," I replied absent mindly, scrolling through my phone book with one hand and playing with Sara with the other.
"Why?" Mike asked, he was still a bit weary of Justin.
"To ask him what time he'll be home," I replied and looked up at him. "But he's not picking up."
I snapped the phone shut as we pulled up outside the grocery store and looked around, it seemed to be very quiet and I looked at both Shelia and Mike.
"I think it's safe," Shelia smiled, reading my mind and opening the door as Mike pulled the car to a stop. "I'll get a buggy."
"Ok," I nodded and got out of the car before turning around and unstrapping Sara.
"Here we go," Shelia's voice came from behind me, causing me to turn around and smile as I saw her and Mike standing by a green buggy. "Get her in and let's go."
We spent an hour or so at the grocery store, and for once we didn't have to cover Sara due to the fact that there were no paps around to sneak a picture.
"I'll start pilling these things up. Is this it Jen? You need anything else?" Shelia asked as she placed a loaf of bread on the counter to be rung in.
"No," I shook my head and picked Sara out of the buggy. ".Let's get this done then go home. I think Sar- Sar needs a nap."
"Ok," Shelia nodded and as if on cue, Sara started getting fussy. I bounced her on my hip and tried to move around so she could calm down, as I turned around I managed to notice a woman wearing a black hoody and jeans with dark aviator sunglasses and felt chill go through me. At first I thought it was just because the room was cold, and turned around quickly to see if a door had been left open but it seemed I was wrong. All the doors to the store were tightly closed, only opening when someone entered and exited.
"Jen? You okay?" Mike's voice came through my thoughts causing me to look at him.
"What? Yeah," I lied and looked back over my shoulder where the woman was still standing, staring at Sara and I. I protectively covered Sara with her blanket and moved closer to Mike. "Let's just speed this up so we can go."
"Uh, ok," Mike nodded, not believing me, looking in the direction I had been looking. "Stay close."
"Oh I will," I muttered and grabbed hold of Sara tighter.
"Shelia," Mike cut in, "Can you finish up here? I'm gonna escort Jen and Sara back to the car."
"Wh- oh," Shelia answered, noticing my sudden change in attitude towards our situation. "Sure go on. I'll be there in a bit."
"Ok. Come on Jen let's go," Mike nodded and placed a hand on the small of my back, leading me out the store.
The minute we got home, Mike was acting strange and escorted me and Sara directly inside before disappearing with Shelia for a chat, leaving me feeling a bit put out. I was still a bit shaken up at what I had seen at the store, so after putting Sara down for her nap and putting away the groceries I decided to call Justin.
"Hello?" he asked, sounding a bit flustered with a lot of noise in the background.
"Justin?" I asked, "Where are you?"
"Jen? Hold on. Trace shut up!" Justin yelled in my ear and I had to pull it away so I wouldn't go deaf. "Jen?"
"Hey," I whispered back and settled down into the couch. "Where are you? It sounds like fun."
"At Trace's place with him and some of the guys," he replied with a laugh. "How was your day?"
"It was..." I paused wondering if I should tell him about the grocery store incident but thought against it. "It was good. Had one interview this morning and that was it."
"Yeah? How did that go?" Justin asked me.
"Good," I smiled thankful that for once he was being nice.
"Great. And how's the munchkin?" Justin asked, his voice softening as he mentioned Sara.
"She's good. Taking her nap," I replied with a smile. "When you coming home?"
"Around five?" he answered and I could picture him looking at his watch.
"Ok," I answered then had an idea. I didn't want it to be just Justin and I tonight, especailly if I was feeling weird about the day's events. "Hey, why don't you bring the guys over? I can cook something nice for them."
"You sure?" Justin asked, caught off guard by my gesture.
"Yes. Besides it'll be nice to meet more of your friends other than Trace," I laughed and he laughed with me.
"Ok," he answered, "I'll let them know. See you at five."
"See you at five," I answered back. "Justin?"
"Yeah Jen?" he asked just as he was about to hang up.
"I just wanted to.." I began but stopped myself.
"Wanted to what?" he interrupted and I shook my head.
"Nothing. Just get here safely ok?" I asked. "Don't drink and drive."
"I won't. You worry too much," he told me with a chuckle. "See ya soon ok? Love ya."
"Yeah," I answered quietly. "Love you too." But I didn't know if I meant it or not.
As soon as I hung up with Justin I let out a sigh of relief and got up to check on Sara before cooking dinner, and as soon as I did so the phone rang again. I shook my head and picked it up, thinking it was Justin.
"Justin?" I asked, not even looking at the caller ID. There was a long silence. "Hello? Justin? Is that you?" The phone remained silent and I shook my head, before hanging up figuring it was just a bad connection.
It was not long before I was standing in the kitchen, looming over a recipe for pasta sauce when the phone rang again. I put down the spoon that was in my hand and reached over to grab the phone.
"Hello?" I asked absent-mindely, wiping my hands on a cloth as I held the phone between my ear and shoulder. "Hello? Justin?" There was no answer and I rolled my eyes, just what I needed. "Whatever."
I hung the phone up and placed it on the side before going back to my reciepe. I didn't even get a chance to read one word before the phone rang again. I sighed angrily and picked up the phone.
"What?" I snapped and waited for an answer, which never came. I rolled my eyes. "Yeah I figured." And angrily put the phone down before going back to my cooking, trying to ignore the phone calls and focus on making a nice dinner for Justin.
It wasn't long before the food was prepared and was allowed to be left to cook, so I picked Sara from her baby chair and went into the living room, where Shelia was talking into her cell.
"Hey," I told her as I sat on the couch and placed Sara on my lap, bouncing her up and down softly.
"Hey, you done with dinner yet?" Shelia asked rubbing Sara's back.
"Yeah," I sighed and kissed Sara's forehead. "Eventually."
"What do you mean eventually?" Shelia asked immediately picking up on my tone of voice.
"Well..." I began, but before I could answer the phone rang again and I jumped. "Great."
"Jen? You ok?" Shelia asked, ignoring the ringing phone in the background.
"Yeah I just... could you answer that?" I asked and she nodded, getting up and grabbing the phone from the kitchen.
"Hello? Hello?" I could hear Shelia asking and I shook my head.
"See Sar-Sar? Mommy's not going crazy is she?" I asked Sara, who just looked at me blankly. I sighed. "I guess not."
"Hello?" I heard Shelia ask before she muttered some choice words down the phone and hanging up, walking back into the room. "Weird."
"Yeah, it's been going on all day," I told her and tickled Sara's tummy, "Ever since we came back from the grocery store."
"Really? Jen, why didn't you say anything?" Shelia asked, immediately on guard and sitting down next to me.
"I didn't think much of it," I shrugged and stood up to go check on the food, putting Sara on my hip.
"Didn't think much of it? Jen!" Shelia almost screeched and stood up too, as the phone in her hand rang again.
"Give that here," I snapped and grabbed the phone from her, this was getting too much. "What the hell do you want?"
"Is that the way to greet your manager?" Marcus' voice boomed in my ear, and I almost melted in my shoes.
"Marcus," I let out a sigh of relief and stole a look at Shelia who was rolling her eyes at me. "Sorry about that."
"That's ok," he laughed and I let myself relax a bit."I was just calling to let you know we have a promo of the CD cover if you want to see it?"
"Uh, yeah sure," I nodded and mouthed to Shelia what he just told me. "When can you come over?"
"Will tomorrow morning work for you? Around eight?" Marcus asked and I nodded.
"Yeah ok. Just tell Shelia so she can pen it in," I answered and looked at Shelia. "Here she is. I need to go finish dinner."
"Oh ok," Marcus answered, "And Jen?"
"Yeah?"
"Be careful ok? Don't stay in the house alone," Marcus warned, giving me chills up my spine.
"I won't," I promised and thrust the phone to Shelia before running into the kitchen to check on the pasta.
A little while later, after I placed Sara in her chair and was plating up the pasta Shelia came in and stood by the fridge with a hand on her hip.
"So do you want to tell me happened? Marcus got worried," Shelia said and I shrugged, reaching over to the stove to pick up the pasta sauce and put it in a small bowl. "Jen..."
"It was nothing Shelia," I sighed and placed the sauce in the small bowl I had gotten out.
"Really?" she asked, moving forward with a frown on her face, "Because I can swear..." As if on cue the door bell rang, causing me to jump and glance at Shelia. "Fine, I'll get it. But we're not finished with this convo ok?"
I nodded meakly and watched her go answer the door. I didn't even notice that my breath was held until I heard Trace's loud laugh as he rounded the corner to enter the room.
"Hey Jen," he laughed and I finally let out a breath of relief. "So what did you cook us?"
"Trace!" Justin called, walking in after him, and before I knew it I had flocked right to him and grabbed him tightly, catching him a bit off-guard. "Baby whats wrong?"
"Why didn't you come through the side door?" I asked still holding on to him.
"Retard Trace ran to ring the door bell...baby you're shaking?" he asked, rubbing my arms and shoulders.
"Really?" I laughed nervously and shook my head. "I'm ok. We'll talk later." Justin nodded and introduced me to his other friends.
"Well this is Marty," he gestured to a thin looking guy, "And Tim."
"Tim? As in Timberland the producer?" I asked, looking at the man standing behind Trace. Justin laughed and shook his head.
"Yeah," he laughed and rubbed my back. "The one and only."
"Well it's nice meeting you," I said, all of a sudden letting myself get more relaxed. "Well food is on the kitchen counter so just help yourselves."
"Thank you baby," Justin grinned and leaned forward to kiss me, but before he could the door bell rang again, causing me to jump and pull Justin closer to me.
"Jen?" Justin asked, and I looked up at him. "You ok?"
"Uh..." I began and Shelia saved me.
"I'll just go get that," she said and disappeared again to answer the door.
"Jen, what's with you?" Justin asked and Trace laughed.
"Yeah Jen what's up?" Trace asked me.
"What? N-nothing," I muttered and looked towards the door, holding my breath only to let it out again when Shelia came back followed by Marcus. "Marcus?"
"Hey Jen," Marcus smiled and looked around the room. "Justin. Trace."
"Marcus," Justin nodded and looked around the room, "Tim, Marty this is Jen's manager Marcus."
"Hey," both Marcus and Tim answered, mouths filled with food as they seemed to have dug in already.
"Hey," Marcus nodded and walked over to me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him, dumbfounded and not even noticing Justin let go of me.
"Well I decided I couldn't wait any longer to show you the CD cover. You wanna see it?" he asked with a smile and I nodded eagerly as we walked over to the counter to get some food.
"Of course. Would you like something to eat?" I asked him, picking up a plate and handing it to him.
"Thanks," he replied and watched for a moment as I plated up some food for Justin. I let Marcus plate up some food for himself before walking over to where everyone had seated themselves and placed the food in front of Justin before turning my attention back to Marcus.
"So where is it?" I asked eagerly and he laughed, putting his plate down and taking something out of his jacket pocket and handing it to me.
"Here," he said and handed me my shiny new CD cover, causing me to catch my breath as everything from that day just faded away as I had worked too hard to see this and nothing was going to ruin the moment.
"Baby look at my cd cover," I said, immediately turning to Justin and holding it up to his face. Justin snapped out of his talk with Marty and turned to face me, taking the cover from my hands and looking at it with a smile.
"Wow," he said and looked up at me, grabbed my hand, pulling me to move closer to him. "You look amazing baby."
"Thanks," I grinned like an idiot and didn't even notice Trace grabbing the cover from Justin's hands. "You really think so?"
"No. I know so," he smiled and placed a peck on my lips. "I'm so proud of ya."
"Well before everyone gets too excited," Marcus cut-in, "I have just one more surprise for you."
"You do?" I asked, dumbfounded by the turn of events that evening.
"Yeah. But I'll show it to you after we eat ok?" he smiled and I groaned but agreed.
"Jen! J! Come on!" Trace called as Justin and I picked Sara up and walked to the living room to see what else Marcus had in store for us.
"Man Trace," Justin muttered under his breath as we entered the living room, causing me to chuckle. This night was just getting better and better.
"Come on guys!" Trace said popping something into the DVD player and sitting on the couch. Justin smirked and lead me to the couch, as Trace made room for us to sit down. "Ok are we ready yet?"
"Yeah we're ready," I smiled and snuggled into Justin as we settled down. It was nice feeling safe in my own home, especially after the long day I'd had. I readjusted Sara on my lap as Trace pressed play on the DVD player and causing us all to gasp.
Marcus had somehow managed to get an un-cut copy of my new music video, and I had to admit I LOVED it. I didn't realize how much I was grinning like a jack-ass until I felt Justin's breath on my ear.
"I'm so proud of you," he whispered in my ear and kissed my cheek, I blushed.
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