Okay, so he had blue eyes.  Strikingly blue eyes.  So what?  Stranger things have happened.  He was hers.  And that’s all that mattered.  After she got over the “momma I’m never gonna get my figure back again!” phase that involved a truck load of chocolate ice cream and comforting words, the weight of the situation set in and Britney jumped full force into motherhood. 

*        *        * 

He had curly hair.  Soft, golden-brown curls that bounced back into place if you ran your fingers through them.  Not a big deal.  He was still just a baby; he could grow out of it. 

*        *        * 

He hated getting dirty.  He liked to just be left alone.  And that was the final straw. 

Kevin walked back into their bedroom one morning after diaper duty and found Britney curled up in a ball underneath the covers, tears streaming down her face. 

Uh oh. 

“What’s wrong, B?”  He sat down beside her and stroked her hair off of her damp face. 

She let out a few loud sobs before regaining some composure.  “I… I… I have something to tell you.” 

*        *        * 

Cameron picked up the phone on the first ring, not wanting to wake the sleeping figure next to her.  “H’lo?”  She yawned, answering without even checking the caller ID. 

When Justin woke up two hours later, Cameron was waiting for him at the kitchen table, his cereal already poured and the milk sitting out next to it. 

He arched an eyebrow at her inquisitively and she took that as her signal to talk, knowing Justin and his “I refuse to speak until after I’ve had my morning cereal, thankyouverymuch” rule. 

“Justin, I got a phone call this morning…” 

*        *        * 

It had taken a whole lot of convincing to get Justin to drive over there.  There had been some yelling, some tears of desperation, and a just a drink or two involved in Cameron’s effort to get him to visit. 

He almost backed out at the last second, but Cameron caught him by the shoulders and swung him back around towards the front door just as it swung open, and he found himself face-to-face with Britney. 

*        *        * 

The second Justin saw him, he knew.  He gasped, and his eyes immediately welled up.  Slowly shifting his gaze towards Britney, he saw the shimmering moisture in her eyes mirroring his own. 

No.  It just.  It couldn’t be.  There was no way.  Well, actually, there was.  He and she both knew it.  That one night now stuck out in their memories so clearly.  He had been in LA, away from Cameron at the time, and it was almost his birthday.  He was lonely and sad and he missed the days when he had four other guys to celebrate with… and her.  Kevin was out of town and Britney was having a moment of insecurity.  A “did I do the right thing” feeling that led her to pick up the phone and dial the number she so seldom had in recent years, and yet it was still so familiar to her that her fingers hardly hesitated. 

They got together.  And reminisced.  And confessed to one another, in their emotional vulnerability, that they wished things hadn’t gone down the way they had.  And one thing led to another and then…  

Cameron and Kevin had headed out back, deciding to give the two of them some privacy. 

“I wonder how everything’s going in there.”  Cameron broke the silence between them. 

“Hopefully it’s going well,” Kevin said.  He looked at his watch.  “They’ve been in there for over an hour.  And it’s been kinda quiet.  You think we should check on them?” 

Cameron nodded in agreement and they headed towards the patio door.  But Cameron dropped her hand before it reached the doorknob.  Kevin followed her gaze and soon found out why. 

They stood in the middle of the room, hugging one another and rocking slowly back and forth.  And then they pulled back.  And Justin pulled her in for a kiss. 

Cameron interlaced her fingers with Kevin’s.  He looked towards her, smiling, and she did the same. 

“Looks like it worked,” she said. 

“You wanna head back to your place and start packing your stuff?”  He asked her. 

“No, let’s wait until they come out here looking for us.  I’d rather see them try to explain things to us and then tell them how we sorta planned it all along.  I don’t want them to think that any of this is their fault.” 

“You knew it would work this whole time, didn’t you?”  Kevin swung his arm up over her shoulder, and he kissed her temple. 

She looked back towards Justin and Britney, who now held their son between them, and smiled.  “Yep.  I knew it.”