It should have taken more than that.

It should have taken the sun not shining in the middle of the day and the moon really being made of cheese to pull her away from what she was doing, but it didn't.

That alone spoke volumes.  She should have been able to ignore it all.  She had an agenda to follow and nothing should have diverted her attention.

It had been simple though.

It was a simple picture.

A simple pose.

A simple hug.

A simple smile.

A simple reason for taking a picture.

A simple reminder.

Love.

Her body was ridgid, at attention, and on edge.  She felt almost as if she needed to readjust the seat because none of the settings of the car matched her posture that day.

The car made it's way through a puddle, splashing water up onto the windows, blinding her for a moment.  Blind.

Love was definitely blind.

If she'd thought for a moment about what was about to happen to her life she would have turned the car around.  She wouldn't have even been in the car in the first place.  It was her wedding day after all.  There had been a church and a reception hall booked, six bridesmaids a soon-to-be mother-in-law and a mother waiting for her to slip into the white dress and make the march down the isle.

All of that was being washed away, much like the wipers on the car were moving the water on the windshield out of her view.

Nearing her destination, her eyes moved to the roadside and opened wider at the sign of the FOR SALE sign at the entrance of the driveway.  She feared the worst for an instant, her stomach dropping again, almost as fast as the rain was falling against her windows.  The gate was open and it looked as if there was an open house going on.  A few cars were parked around the circle driveway, none that looked like one of his, but she still new that she should go inside.

Flipping the car quickly into park, she pushed open the car door.  Her arm prickled as the cool rain hit her skin, leaving wet poka-dots on the arm of her robe.  She slid out into the rainy afternoon, ignoring the fact that she was barely dressed, ignoring the fact that her feet were bare, and clearly ignoring the fact that she'd left the door open.  The dinging of the headlights alarm matched the thudding of her heart against her chest as she moved towards the house.

Rain fell at a steady pace now, soaking her to the bone before she even realized what was happening.  Her bare feet splashed in a puddle on the slightly uneven driveway, red toenails shining through the slightly muddy water.

"Momma!"

She turned back to the car at the sound of the voice, and moved to open the passenger side door, pulling from the car the other love of her life.

Her son.

She had almost forgotten him at the house.  It was only as she was pulling out away from the garage that her mother had appeared at her door, son in tow, holding him out as if she should have known better and that he was going to be a part of whatever happened that day.

She didn't even know if he'd be at home as she balanced her son on her hip and pushed the doors shut on the car.  She hadn't really even thought of anything other than the need to speak to him.  She'd thought for a long time that she'd have caught him on the road driving there, but no such luck.

"Wet," he said squinting in the rain.

"Yes honey," she said and moved her hand to shade his eyes from the rain.

There was no going back now.  Even if she did run back to her wedding it would take hours to repair the damage done, not only to her relationship, but to her hair and make up.  Basically there was no way that she was getting married that day.

Nearing the front door she saw that the house was open.  A sign on the door read that the tour should started in the kitchen.  She bipassed the sign and arrow that pointed towards the left side of the house and headed straight towards the right side of the house, knowing that somewhere in the back would be a studio and no matter how it came to be that JC was going to sell his house, she knew that if he was here, he'd be hiding in the studio, waiting for the open house to tell him his future.

"Jace," she breathed out as she entered what looked to be a library or office.

She'd never thought that she'd find him there.  She hadn't thought of that part of it.  She'd seen scenes like this in movies.  In Hollywood everything was easy.  Ususally the lead woman and the lead man would just see each other and kiss and the credits would roll.  There was no script she knew of that dealt with what would happen when she opened her mouth and actually spoke to him.

JC was sitting at the massive mahogany desk, jacket off, tie pulled loose, eyes closed, head tipped back against the leather high-back seat.  He looked exhausted.  That was until he heard her voice and his eyes opened up with a brightness that she hadn't seen in years.

"You're selling the house?" she asked when nothing else came to mind.

He nodded his head simply as if he didn't know what to say either.  His body straightened up and his arm reached out to move a picture frame.

Her eyes caught the side of the picture and she knew instantly what it was.

It was the shot of the two of them, in what she referred to as the Camelot days, when things were perfect and they were the happy little couple. The framed photo was them on the set of one of the videos for the group, his arm around her looking very plastic in his stage make-up, but the genuine smile he had and the one she returned showed that neither of them were at all plastic when it came to their relationship.

"You're moving?"

He nodded again as his hand moved to take a second picture frame and place it face down on the desk.

She didn't have to see it to know which one it was.  It was the group standing outside of the 2000 Billboard awards posing on the red carpet. He had that same happy look on his face, which was important, but also the picture had caught her in the background looking upset about being there. No one ever noticed the frown on her face or the slight dimness of her eyes, but she was drawn to it over and over again as she stared at the back of the picture frame.

"Why?" she finally asked.

His eyes wandered to their son's head, which was now resting against her shoulder.  She could see his breath catch in his chest.  He hadn't seen his son in years.  She'd sent his mother pictures often enough, but that side of the family hadn't seen the boy in person since JC had left her life.

His voice was shaky, but the message was clear, "I could never make it home without you."