He looked at her with disbelief, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find his words.

"Not ready? What do you mean your not ready to have a baby?"

"I mean, I don't want to be a mother yet. I'm still learning how to be your wife. I thought we could wait another 2 years or so."

"What-What are you talking about? I said 'Your gonna give me babies and you said yes."

"I didn't know you meant tomorrow. Justin I thought we could wait and spend some more time just us and see where our careers go and then talk about kids."

"Our careers? what do our careers have to do with this?"

She looked at him as if she wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"They have a lot to do with this. I'm just getting started, I wanna see how far I can go."

"You can do that and have a baby."

"No, I can't. I take a year long break and I many not get back on the charts again."

"What are you talking about? I've been on long breaks before?"

"But that's you Justin. Your career is solid, you've got years and years. MMC, Nsync, solo. I've got last year and right now, I need this."

Justin let go of her hand and bit down on his lip as he fidgeted.

"Fine," he said finally, getting up and walking away.

"Randall," she followed him down the hall.

He didn't respond.

"Randall talk to me."

He kept walked.

"Justin are you listening to me?"

No response. Why was he being such a child?

"Talk to me."

"Talk," he turned to her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you. I'm just trying to do what I think is best for me."

"But why is it about you McKayla? Why is it what you want and what you need?"

She looked at him, trying to understand where this was coming from. Why was he attacking her all of a sudden?

"Justin I'm not trying to make this about me."

"Then why don't we compromise? Why don't we not use protection and if you don't get pregnant then you don't get pregnant? If you do then you do. We'll leave it up to higher power."

Okay, was it or did he sound alittle bit controlling? How about insensitive?

"Justin, I can't do that. If I got pregnant I'd-," she paused.

"You'd what?" he pushed, "You'd get an abortion? Is that what you were going to say?"

"No."

"Good."

McKayla put a hand on her hip.

"But for the record it would be my choice and I can if I want."

"Oh no you can't."

"And why not? It's my kid."

"It's my kid too."

"But it's my body."

"So. That's no excuse for you to say that your opinion or lifestyle or career is better or more important than mine."

"I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's my body and it'd be my decision to make."

"Why? Why is it your decision? I don't get a vote because I'm only the father?"

McKayla rolled her eyes.

"This is a pointless conversation. We don't even have a kid."

"No no no, this is something we should talk about," he leaned against the door frame.

"You don't think that if you got pregnant this would be a decision we'd have to make together? Have equal say on?"

"Ofcourse, but I also think in the end it'd be what I need."

"Well it's not equal say if it comes down to you McKayla. I don't understand women. You're willing to go out and have a kid with a guy that couldn't care less about you and begged you not to have a kid in the first place and then you take him to court and make him pay for it for the rest of his life. But if you have a guy that loves you and is committed to you and wants to have children with you, you're not sure. You wanna wait. You tell him it's not his choice. Why is it always up to the woman?"

McKayla stood there looking at him, flabbergasted. In all honesty she didn't have a solid answer. As much as she didn't want it to, some of what he said made sense and she was confused. She was always told it was the woman's right to choose, and it was, but the father had rights too.

"Why are we talking about this? When did we go from you and me to men and woman in general? Not to mention for someone who has never had a baby, and who will never have to go through it you're being alittle high and mighty. Don't you see that being a mother is just alittle different from being a father. Yes, you will love your child, but for everything that happens they look to the mother. The mother is number one in everyone's book. I'm not ready for that yet."

His featured softened alittle and he looked at her.

"I'm not trying to fight with you Kayla, I'm trying to find a middle ground."

"You're trying to get your way, you're trying to do what's best for Justin," she turned her back and walked away.

Justin pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Okay, so part of him was just trying to get his way. But he really did want to understand her mentality.

"Kayla," he walked into the bedroom to find her pulling clothes out of one of her bags, "what are you doing?"

"I'm sleeping in the other room tonight."

"The other room? You can't sleep in there."

"Yes, I can," she stood up and looked at him, "and I will. Good night Justin."

He watched her walk past him and back out into the hall.

"McKayla."

A door slammed in response.

McKayla changed into her nightgown and climbed into the cold bed alone, cursing herself. When exactly did she decide that sleeping alone was a good idea?

"Idiot," she muttered to herself.

She couldn't go get in her own bed now, that'd be giving in. She had a point to prove.

Hours later, once the room was dark and she was sound asleep, the door squeaked open and a figure tiptoed in. He crawled under the sheets beside her and slip an arm around her waist. McKayla's eyes cracked open and she looked down at the hand rested on her stomach.

"Randall," she groaned groggily, "get out."

"No."

"Go away," she whined moved over.

He pulled her back to where she'd been, wrapping both arms around her waist, his head resting on her shoulder.

"Your invading my bubble," she complained.

"I don't give a shit about your bubble," he said, "I'm not leaving. You can stay mad at me if you want to but I've been up all night and the only way I can get to sleep is if I'm next to you. Now shush."

McKayla opened her eyes, intending to glare at him. Instead she smiled. He had, in his own little way, said that he needed her.

"Bossy," she snickered.

"So what do you think? Am I just being selfish?" McKayla studied her tootsie roll pop before sticking it back in her mouth.

"See, this is a conversation most people would have before they got married."

"Shannon, come on," McKayla stopped her forward motion down the hall," I need your opinion, am I doing the right thing or not?"

"McKayla it's your body. If it feels right to you, then it's the right thing to do."

McKayla's shoulders slumped alittle.

"I just think it hurt him. Having your wife tell you she doesn't want to get pregnant must be a tough blow."

"Wait. You don't want to have kids at all?"

McKayla rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I want to have kids. Just not right now. I wanna get on stable ground with me career, and then settle down in one place for a while and give him as many children as he could ever possibly want. But I feel like I need to wait. Like I need something first."

"Well, sweetie, you don't need me to tell you how you feel. You know what you need better than anyone else."

McKayla nodded. That wasn't exactly what she was looking for. What she wanted was a solid yes or no answer. Justin's laughter sounded in her ear and she felt an arm wrap around her.

"Are we ready?" Trace asked.

"Home sweet home! I'm off for the next 3 days, thank you Jesus. Where's my babies?" McKayla headed to the backdoor.

As soon as she pulled open the curtain she was met with 3 pairs of brown eyes and wagging tails. Her face lit up as she opened the door and immediately knocked onto her butt, the three dogs licking her face and nuzzling against her.

"Did you guys miss me? Was Grandma Lynn good to you? Huh?"

Justin watched as she rolled around on the floor with Tarnish, Seth and Zoe somewhat playing along.

"You know, if you have that much with a dog, imagine the fun you'll have with a baby."

McKayla cut her eyes at him and ignored his statement.

"So you're going over to your Mom's right?"

"Yeah."

"Can you drop at the hospital on your way?"

Justin turned to face her, "Why are you going to the hospital?"

"Dr. Wheaton wants to measure my biorythmn thingies, something, I don't know."

"Well, I'll go with you."

"No, go see your Mom."

"We can both go see her after."

McKayla shrugged.

"Whatever."

"You wanna do what to me?"

"Just a couple simple shots-."

"No. Sorry."

"McKayla-."

"I don't do shots. My last shot was when I was like, 6, and they had to catch me first."

"Which is exactly why you need to get them. You need to catch up on that, plus I want you to have a flu shot-."

"I'm not sick."

"You have been. You were in bed for a week last month, remember?"

"Shut up Justin," she muttered.

"McKayla, they faxed me your schedule. The last thing you need it to get sick on your first stop. Plus I want to do some blood work."

"Blood work? What for?" Justin sat up.

"I want to check her iron, her blood cells, things like that. Just to make sure everything's going all right, the last thing we want are any surprises."

Both men looked at McKayla, who shook her head in protest.

"I hate shots."

"McKayla, I really think it's in your best interest."

"Weren't you just doing commercial for breast cancer," Justin spoke, "telling them to get checked, early detection is the key?"

McKayla rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Fine. Whatever."

"Alright. Take this slip downstairs to station 5. They'll do it, the results will take 2 days, I'll call you if I find anything I don't like."

McKayla muttered a thanks and turned to leave the room.

"Thanks dock," Justin took the paper from the man's hand, "She doesn't mean to be rude. She'd just not into needles and blood and all that stuff."

Dr. Wheaton nodded understandingly.

"It's really not as bad as she thinks it will be."

"McKayla Malone," the nurse looked up from the chart, her eyes wide.

"Oh my gosh, you're the McKayla Malone," she said, "and your-your the Justin Timberlake," she dropped the papers she was holding, and quickly bend down to pick them up, "Oh my God, wow. What are you doing here? Well, I know what your doing here but, wow, Justin and McKayla in my hospital. Wait till I tell my sister about this one. Follow me," the nurse bounced into the back.

McKayla turned to her husband, her eyes stern and not amused.

"Get me a different nurse. No way is she sticking me with anything."

Justin waited till McKayla was in the back before stepping over to the counter. McKayla followed the nurse to a room in the very back and was told to sit down in a chair covered in stickers that read "Brave" and "Strong". When she was little something like that might have been a worthy award for allowing someone to shove things in her arm, not anymore.

Justin entered the room, behind another nurse. This one was older, and smiled at McKayla in a motherly way.

"Belle, why don't you go to the front desk."

"But I was just about to..." she motioned to McKayla.

"Don't worry about it, I got her. Macy needs your help up there."

"Oh. Well, alright. Bye McKayla, it was nice meeting you," she smiled brightly, "bye Justin."

McKayla rolled her eyes and mimicked the girl behind her back.

"Bye Justin," she batted her eyelashes and blew him a kiss.

"I'm sorry about that," the new nurse smiled as she wrapped an elastic band around the top of McKayla's arm, "Belle's new. You're her first celebrity."

"Do you get a lot of them in here?" Justin sat down in a chair on the other side of the room.

"Dr. Wheaton has a lot of celebrity clients. Ofcourse, I'm not allowed to tell you who."

Justin made a face and McKayla giggled.

"So, I'm going to take your blood, and then Cindy will call your name, she's in station 2, and she'll give you your shots."

"All right," McKayla gulped as she watched the woman pull out a needle.

"Just don't look," Justin said.

McKayla turned her head and looked at the wall. She felt a sharp pinch on her arm, and then nothing. She looked down and watched the vile fill.

She glanced at her husband as the nurse switched viles and laughed at the expression on his face.

"How many of those do you need?" he asked.

"Three."

He scrunched up his face and sat back.

"Alright. You're all down," the nurse removed the needle and placed a cottonball over it, then taped it down.

"Keep pressure on this for the next 5-7 minutes."

McKayla heard her name being called from another room and smiled at the woman before leaving.

"Are you McKayla?" a woman stopped them in the hall.

"Yes."

"Come with me."

They followed the woman into another room and McKayla sat down in a gray chair, looking at the 5 needles laid out on the counter.

"We're going to do 3 in one arm, and 2 in the other okay?" the woman asked.

McKayla shrugged.

Without warning the woman rubbing alcohol on her upper arm, then gave her the shot. Followed by the second on. She moved to the other side, rubbed alcohol on that arm, and gave her the third shot.

McKayla looked up at her husband, mouthing 'ow'. His face was anything but comforting. She was the one in pain, but he looked like he was about the cry out.

"All done," she said, "now your arms are going to be really sore, so you might want to take some Advil and take it easy for the rest of the day," she put Band-Aids over all the spots.

"Thanks."

When she stood a baby in another room started to cry. Justin shook his head and pointed to the other room as the nurse left.

"See, our kids wouldn't do that. Our kids wouldn't cry cause the girls would be like their Mom, and run from the doctor the first chance they got, and I'd have our boys toughened up by the time they got here. They'd go, "What? Is that it dock? That all you got?"

McKayla shook her head and grabbed his arm.

"Would you come on?"

McKayla lead Justin back out to the lobby and laughed at him.

"You looked like you were about to cry or something."

"Did you see that lady? She was like a friggin, machine or something. Stick, inject, stick, inject, stick, inject."

"I don't need the play-by-play Randall, I was there."

"And you hung in there like a trooper," he patted her arm.

"Ow!"

"Sorry."

McKayla gave him a look.

"Can we just go to your Mother's so I can go home?"

"We'll see my Mom tomorrow," he opened her door for her and helped her climb in, "we're gonna go to the store, get you some Advil and some of those little donut holes you like, and then go home."

McKayla slouched down in her seat, "Okay. Ow, my arms really hurt right now."

"Better you than me."

"What?"

"If it were me, we'd still be in there. It would have taken them 10 minutes to find a vein, and no way would I be able to take 5 shots like that. You're a stronger person than me Kay."

"Hey Randall, when was the last time you had shots?" she smiled.

"How long is this damn show?"

"Doesn't matter. You said we could watch whatever I wanted too," McKayla shifted as she laid with her head in his lap.

"But Saved By the Bell?"

"First of all it's Saved By the Bell: College Years: Wedding In Las Vegas, and second, it's going off in few minutes."

"Thank God."

"Oh shut up. I think it's so cute, after all those years Kelly and Zack got married. It's fate."

"I think it's horniness."

"That's because you have no sense of romance. But you know what I don't get? At my high school there was this kid Zack, but he spelled his with an 'h' instead of a 'k' and it always seemed weird to me. Everyone said it was supposed to be spelled with an 'h' but I think it should be with a 'k'. Now see look! He spells it Zack with a 'k'!" her hand shot out to point at the television.

Automatically she gasped and pulled her arm back, her other hand reaching up to grab the spot.

"What part of 'your arms are going to be sore, take it easy for the day' don't you get?" Justin picked up her water glass and two more Advil.

"I forgot alright."

"When we have a kid, if we decide to name it Zack--although I don't think Zack Timberlake has a great ring to it--no way are we spelling it with a 'h', aiight?"

"Sure," she rolled her eyes.

He was really starting to get on her nerves with all this 'baby' talking he'd been doing.

"What is with you and talking about baby's today? Are you still mad at me about what I said before?"

"No. But I'm not allowed to talk about it? I can't plan for when we do have one?"

"I didn't say that Randall. I'm just saying all your little comments are kinda of...annoying. It's like your pushing me, without pushing me."

"I am not pushing you."

"By mentioning it every five seconds you are. And your starting to make me feel guilty."

"That's not my fault."

"Yes, it is. Why can't your respect my decision?"

"I am."

"No, you're not."

"Fine. I won't mention it again. I won't say another fucking word. Happy now, your heinous? Cause everything's always about what makes you happy anyway," he stood up and walked into the kitchen.

McKayla dropped her head onto the sofa and groaned. Part of her was wondering why she didn't just keep her mouth shut and not ask the question, but the other part was wondering what was going in his mind.

She stood up and walked into the kitchen to find Justin with his head in the fridge.

"Randall," she said his name softly as she leaned her hip against the counter top.

Justin sighed and closed the fridge, leaning back against it, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked about eleven years old.

"What is going on Justin? Is there something your not tellin me?"

All this couldn't be about her and a baby, could it?

"I'm just trying to understand you Kay."

"And I'm trying to understand you. Why can't you just support me on this?"

"Why can't you just compromise?" he moved to stand in front of her, "Why can't we just see what happens? At least for alittle while."

McKayla sighed and looked away and Justin put his hands on her hips.

"Can we just try the no protection thing for a while? If you don't get pregnant than you don't get pregnant but please? Atleast give your body the option."

No one could ever say that Justin Timberlake didn't have the best puppy dog eyes their side of the Mississippi, and no one could ever say that McKayla Malone was immune to them. Against her better judgment, she nodded.

"Fine. Fine, Justin."

He sighed as if a heavy weight had just been lifted from his shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

"I'd hug you back but my arms really hurt."

She felt him smile against her shoulder.

"Everything is gonna work out perfect for us Kay."

She closed her eyes when he hugged her tighter and wanted to so much to be swallowed up by the comfort she felt there. Things were gonna be perfect all right, his version of perfect.