Justin plopped down on the sofa and ran a hand over his face. This day was turning out to be a struggle, not that he'd expected any less. McKayla'd spent an hour going back and forth between crying and apologizing, before Justin'd sent her to bed. She'd been at the club during the evening, then stayed at the hospital all night, and all that stress, activity, and lack of sleep couldn't be good for her or the baby.

They had very precious cargo to consider now. Simple acts couldn't go over looked, especially in the first few, very critical months. Because of this, Kay was now sleeping upstairs, tucked in peacefully on her side of the bed. It was still warm and waiting for her, because Justin had been laying there previously.

His mind wondered off to the circumstances that surrounded them. It was both a joyous and a terrible situation at the same time. Athena had passed away in an accident, but he couldn't help but wonder where he would be had it not happened. She'd come back to him and he wasn't complaining, but it did suck that it was very likely that she wouldn't have been there if she hadn't died. It made him, for a moment, question their love and relationship.

Very quickly however he realised that he had no right to question her when he was keeping his own infidelity a secret. He'd told himself that it was the right thing to do, and that McKayla deserved to know the truth. But now that he looked at her, and her growing abdomen and realized what he would be losing, he'd changed his mind. He wasn't going to tell her anything and he was going to do everything he could to ensure that no one else said anything about it to her either. He'd rather live with her with this one thing burning in his mind, than let it all out and have her leave him again.

"Randall?"

She was supposed to be asleep, but he could hear her soft foot steps coming down the stairs. She'd been out for a good four hours, he supposed that was good enough for the moment.

"Livingroom," he replied.

A moment later she appeared in front of him, one of her hands pulling her short hair into a ponytail and holding onto it.

"What are you doing?"

"Just sitting here," he reached for one of her hands, and pulled her around lay on the couch next to him.

"How you feeling?" his hand petted her hair.

"Better I guess."

He was still holding on to her hand when he kissed the top of her head.

"Have you heard anything about Shannon yet?" she asked.

Justin shook his head, "Let's not worry about Shannon right now. Let's worry about you, this family, the three of us."

Something similar to a smirk appeared on McKayla's face, but just as quickly it disappeared.

"Yeah, there's going to be three of us isn't there?"

"Yep. You and me and our little boy."

McKayla made a noise.

"It's a girl," she stated.

"I don't think so. Timberlakes make boys."

"Malone's make girls and I'm stronger than you so..." she gave him a look.

When Justin shrugged in responce McKayla's eyes wondered down to the coffeetable and her face lifted in surprise and then comfusion.

"Hey! I got one of those too. Why do you have one?"

She reached forward to pick up the copy of 'Sun Star.' Justin's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Had he been sitting here thinking about not telling her and this large piece of circumstances evidence was staring at him the whole time? He needed to be hit. Hard.

"You have one?" he asked, "Why do you have one?"

"Ath-," she paused, "Athena brought it to the hotel. She was so cute, all pissed off about it on my behalf, until I explained to her that it was just some trashy magazine and I wouldn't believe a word of it."

She wouldn't.

"You wouldn't?"

"Ofcourse not."

Ofcourse she wouldn't. His McKayla was better than that, he knew."

"I mean, this is the same paper that claimed Jesus was back and was now somewhere in North Dakota married to a 14 year-old and the father of 75 kids."

Justin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was glad to know that she wouldn't flip out over the slightest article, but it never could keep a secret from her. He'd even broke down and told her about the suprise birthday party he'd planned for her last year.

"Plus I know you. You can't not tell me stuff. That's why you're not in the doghouse alot. I know that if you did something you'd let me know."

Now he really felt sick. He gave her a tight smile and nodded his head.

"Well I better get going," she started to stand and he squeezed the hand he was still holding.

"Where you going?"

"I should get back to the hotel. I could use clean clothes and a hot shower."

"You have clothes here, and the last time I checked we had a bathroom here too."

She groaned his name and started to pout.

"Well, I'll go with you then. I'll drive."

"That's not necessary.I know how to get back to my hotel. Infact I'd prefer to be alone."

Movie scenes of people saying they wanted to be alone. It rarely turned out to be a good thing.

"Either I go with you, or you're not going anywhere."

McKayla looked at him, trying to figure out if he was serious or not. He was.

"Fine," she groaned, "Hurry up."

"I just gotta get shoes."

The drive to her hotel was silent, McKayla had her head against the window watching the lines on the street wizz by. Justin would steal glances at her every few seconds. It was weird and completely irrational but he wanted her to be getting over this. It was an unfair request because it'd only happened that day, or technically the day before, but he still wanted her to be the same funny woman he'd known before. It was easy for him because he hadn't been around Athena all that much, it hit him for a second, but McKayla had practically lived with her for months. It was hitting her alot harder. Justin was trying to be understanding and respectful of her relationship.

He pulled up to the valet stand infront of the hotel, not even caring about the fact that there were fans standing out front and that since neither of them had security, it would have been better to pull around back. He just wanted to get her up to her room so she could unwind and hopefully go back to bed for a few more hours.

Just got out and walked around the car to where the valet was already opening the door. Justin handed him the keys, and the took his wife's hand and lead her to the glass enterance doors. There weren't many fans inside, just a few, all baring sad faces. Obviously everyone knew what had happened to their favorite Assistant's Assistant. McKayla's kinda fell she noticed a face had a poster with a picture of her and Shannon with Athena, taken while they were out shopping somewhere. Underneith the picture 'We Will Remember You' was written in purple glitter pen.

Eric met them at the elevators and offered only a small smile at Justin. McKayla's head was down, leaning against her husband's shoulder as they walked. When they finally made it up to her room he followed her into her bedroom, where she grabbed stripped off her pants and socks and headed into the bathroom.

A few moments later Justin heard the shower start and headed back into the living room. It was a nice hotel, very elegant and charming. But it wasn't home. There were no videogames or food wrappers. No ringing phones or wallets forgotten by Joey or Chris. There was no coziness to it. He plopped down on the sofa and turned on the TV. He could get used to the size of this television though. McKayla wouldn't let him get the television he'd wanted. She said something with the same measurements as the wall was ugly. He, being a guy, obviously begged to differ. Now he was stuck with the typical big screen TV that all the other celebrities had.

Awhile later the shower turned off and he could hear her shuffling around in the room through the open door. Then everything was all silent and his lips curled in concentration. Where was she? Justin stood and moved to the doorway of the room, where he could see her sitting on the bed. The room was softly eluminated by one lamp on the bedside table, and she was sitting wrapped in a white towel, her golden brown locks slicked straight back from the water.

Her young face was so much older than she was, it held so much more understanding and wisdom than he ever thought a 20-something year old could. It was moments like these that reminded him that for everything thing she'd ever done that he thought was stupid, she was so much smarter than he ever could be.

After letting out a sigh, Justin sat down next to her and took her hand. Her gaze didn't shift for a second, then she looked at their intertwined fingers, and then at his face and smirked sadly as she gave his hand a squeeze.

It was a couple days after Athena's funeral and McKayla was pretty much functioning as usual. The days up until the funeral had been hard ones, but once she'd dropped her rose onto the casket she was back to pretending that everything was okay and that she could go it alone. The 'McKayla' train wasn't back to work yet, mainly because Shannon was having a terrible time dealing with it. But Justin was happy for her days off anyway, because she'd finally moved back into their home and though their relationship wasn't completely back to normal, they liked to pretend that it was and go on with their lives as though nothing had happened.

They knew they needed to sit and talk things out, but while McKayla thought she was Supergirl and could do it all, Justin only wanted her taking on one thing at a time. First Athena, then the baby, and then them.

However, Justin still hadn't told her about the chick. You know, the one from the nightclub.

He need too. But he couldn't. He had too, but he couldn't. He wanted to because it was starting to weigh on him, and because she had a right to know. He just kept thinking about how when they got married he promised to honor her, and he wasn't honoring her or their relationship this way.

"Randall?"

"Family room," he informed her.

"Kitchen," she said.

He stood with a grunt and headed into the room to find her putting away groceries, and another person sniffing through the bags.

"Dude, what are you doing here?"

"I'm helping my girlfriend put away groceries, what does it look like?"

Justin smirked at Trace.

"Your girlfriend huh? Last time I checked it was my bed she was sleeping in."

"Maybe. But who do you think put the bun the oven? I mean come on, we all know about your little problem J."

McKayla's mouth dropped open as she turned her back towards the open freezer. Were those two really standing there talking about her like that, right in front of her?

"Please Trace, there's a different between having one, and knowing what to do with one."

"Which completely knocks you out of the competition."

"Excuse me, last time I checked my man's name was JC, I don't know what you two are arguing about."

Justin's mouth dropped open and Trace chuckled. It served him right, talking about her like that.

"Baby that is so cold," he said.

McKayla grinned at him before leaving the room and heading up the stairs. He followed her, leaving Trace to do whatever he wanted, preferably leave.

"Baby," he called after her stepping into the room, "That seriously was messed up."

"Are you kidding?" she stepped out of the closet as she reached behind her to unzip the skirt that was wrapped around her hips, "You do remember what you were saying about me right?"

"We were only kidding."

She made a face at him as she walked back into the closet. A second later she returned wearing a blue button down shirt and a pair of jeans in her hand. He watched her pull them on, but they didn't quite button.

"Damn it. I need new clothes again. Stupid belly," she sighed and looked at herself in the mirror.

Justin moved behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder and slowly rubbing his hands back and forth over the ever growing bump.

"I don't know. I kinda like it," he began to plant several light kisses on her neck.

McKayla tilted her head with a smile, "You would. You always had a thing for large women."

His fingers pinched her side and she squirmed.

"Okay okay, I take it back."

"Too late. Do you remember rule five?"

She nodded. Since that rule had been made, she found herself in violation of it alot. She made a mental note to make a rule against that rule.

"If I remember correctly, which I do, then that rule stated something along the lines of: You, McKayla Malone, are not allowed to say, imply, or even think anything bad about yourself. And if you do, you have to kiss me."

"No, I don't think it was kiss you, I think it was tickle you or smack you, or something like that."

"Nice try, but I doubt it. So where's my payment?"

She glanced up at him, and then gave him a swift peck on the lips before turning to walk away. His arms tightened around her.

"What the hell was that? That's how you kiss your Mom when you little or something, I'm your husband."

She turned to him, intending on giving him another swift peck on the lips. But he held onto her tightly and when she tried to pull away he only followed her. Soon she was struggling not to giggle against his lips. When he finally did pull away he smacked his lips together and gave her a pleased smile.

"That'll do."

"You're sick," she chuckled.

"Hey! If you two are going to stay up there and play kissy face all night I might as well take off," Trace's voice echoed up the stairs.

"Well then beat it loser!" came Justin's reply.

"Loser? I don't have to take this ya know. I'm going home."

"He's such a dumbass," Justin informed her as he let go and moved over to the window to watch Trace leave.

"You know he came over here with a bag of that stuff you guys are always lighting up, until I reminded him that you can't do anymore because I'm with child."

"See, dumbass."

McKayla chuckled, heading back into the closet to find something else to put on. The phone rang and she heard Justin's voice ring out. When she came back he glanced up at her, and his face was a little nervous. He mouthed, 'it's Johnny.' before heading out of the room and down the stairs with the cordless.

She found it a little strange, but shrugged it off. It wasn't like she hadn't heard him talk to Johnny before. Hell, sometimes she'd even talked to Johnny for him while he was busy doing something else. Whatever they had to say to eachother couldn't be that big of a deal. However, the thoughts exited her mind as she went back to dressing herself.

"Oh shoot."

She had wanted to ask Trace about Shannon while he was there. The guy had practically moved in with her over the past few weeks, not that anyone was complaining. McKayla was up for whatever would help Shannon get back to normal.

McKayla crossed the room to the phone, but then realized that it wasn't there. Justin had taken it downstairs with him. She headed out of the room and to the top of the stairs.

"Baby?" she called out when he was no where in sight, "Randall are you off the phone?"

She was met with silence. Oh well, there was a phone in the guestroom, she could just pick it up and if there was a dialtone, then she knew the answer. After plopping down on the bed she picked up the phone, and instantly heard voices. It was no problem, she could use her cellphone or do it later.

But as she went to set the phone down, something Johnny said caught her attention and she put a hand over the reciever as she raised it back to her ear.

"So, what exactly did she do again?" Justin asked softly.

"Well she'd already sold her story to a few other trashy papers by the time we got to her. but we put a lean on them and all but one agreed not to release it."

"What about the other one that didn't?"

"It's just as trashy as the 'Sun Star', no one will believe it."

"Good."

"As for Mackenzie, she's willing to keep quiet. But it cost us a pretty penny Justin, we're going to need to be reemberced."

"Fine. Fine, whatever, as long as this thing comes to an end."

"What does McKayla say about all of this?"

"Nothing. She doesn't know."

"You didn't tell her?"

"No, and you're not going to either."

McKayla's brow furrowed and she wasn't thinking as she dropped the phone back down on the base. Johnny's voice froze at the 'click' noise and Justin's whole body began to shake with nervousness.

"Please tell me that was on your end Johnny."

When Johnny told him it wasn't, Justin hung his head and a low 'shit' escaped under his breath.

"I'll call you back," he said hanging up on the manager.

As he climbed the stairs back up to his bedroom, everything was surreal and kind of moving in slow motion. He mentally kicking himself in the butt. If he'd had just told her, a moment like this wouldn't be happening. He didn't know if he could confess everything, and his palms were getting sweaty at the thought of it.

Justin pushed open the door, and McKayla was standing right there in the middle of the room. Her leg was out to the side, and one of her hands resting on her cocked hip as she stared at him expectantly.

"Do you have something you need to tell me?"

Justin let out a sigh and stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself. The click of the lock seemed to echo on forever.