Chapter Twenty-Two Welcome June 20th 2003 Nick looked at Paige like she was crazy.  “What in the world are you talking about?  His water didn’t break he’s not due for another 3 weeks…” “Nicky.”  Justin said quietly. “I mean he can’t be in labor it’s not possible, we haven’t even finished those breathing classes yet…”Nick kept on rambling. “Nicky!” Justin said a bit louder this time. “None of his bags are packed yet, and we haven’t even gone to the doctor for the last time…” “NICKOLAS GENE CARTER!” Justin yelled. Nick stopped talking and turned to Justin.  “What?” “My water did just break…we’re going to have a baby…today.” Justin said trying not to break down and cry. Paige ran her hands through her hair. “This isn’t supposed to happen, you guys are supposed to jump up and down cuz you love you’re room.” *****@***** All the rest of the friends looked on in shock. “What should we do?” Howie whispered to Vanessa. Vanessa looked around noticing nobody else was doing anything in the room.  “My god guys, you all look like a bunch of frigging statues.” She exclaimed as he walked down the hallway to the room where Nick, Justin, and Paige were. Walking in, she ran right to Justin. “You ok honey?” She asked softly. Justin looked down at Vanessa with scared eyes and nodded.  “Y…Yeah.” Vanessa looked at Nick and walked to him grabbing his hand to pull him over to Justin.  “Come on Nicky you go to be strong here.” Nick swallowed hard.  “I’m not ready for this Vanessa, I’m scared.” “I just called the hospital, they are expecting you guys.” Howie called from the doorway trying to be helpful in some way. Sighing Vanessa grabbed Justin by one arm, and Nick by the other and guided them out of the house. ******@***** Justin groaned in pain as he sat in the hospital bed.  Now he understood why men left this kind of thing up to the woman. It hurt like hell. He looked around the room wondering where in the world Nick had gone. Nick jumped into the room groaning.  “Its fucking crazy out there, it’s taking more the hospital security to keep the press away.” “Why can’t we just be normal at least for a day?” Justin sighed. Nick walked to Justin’s bed side and held his hand.  “Everything will be alright baby…I’ll make sure of it.” Justin smiled slightly and nodded.  “I love you.” “I love you too.” Nick said, bending down to kiss Justin on the lips softly. “We’re going to have a baby in a few hours…can you believe it?” Justin shook his head. “Actually no I can’t…until I feel that oh so lovely sharp pain go through my lower back…then I know.” There was a knock on the door and AJ poked his head. “Everybody decent?” “Yeah, come in on Jay.” Nick said smiling at his friend.  “That is if you want to get your head chewed off.” He joked. Justin glared at Nick.  “I will pretend you didn’t say that.” AJ laughed and walked into the room. “I just wanted to see how you were doing…everybody out in the waiting room is rooting for ya.” Justin couldn’t help but smile.  “I’m doing alright…the doctor should be in to tell me what is going to happen next…in a few minutes I would assume.” AJ nodded.  “That’s good…thanks for being the first one to do this. I don’t think I could handle it.” Nick looked at AJ like he had a second head.  “Since when was AJ McLean such a pussy?” AJ glared at Nick.  “I’m not…it’s just this is scary you know…I mean a lot of stuff could happen.  They could cut too much, or not stitch you up enough. And then there is the possibility of the baby dying, it’s just a lot to worry about.” Justin’s face got a freaky color of white.  “I…I’m not doing this.” It was Nicks turn to glare at AJ.  “Thanks a lot Alex.” He said before turning to Justin and kissing him lightly.  “Shh…its ok baby, don’t listen to him he’s just being a jerk.” AJ took his as his cue to leave the room and walked back out into the waiting room snuggling down next to Marshall. Marshall looked at AJ worried.  “Honey, are you ok?” AJ sighed and shook his head.  “Not really I mean I’m worried for Justin and stuff. But more worried how I’m going to handle this. I may look like a tough ass but you and I know that isn’t really how I am.” The room was silent for a few minutes as Marshall tried to think of something to say to make AJ feel better. The problem was he didn’t know what to say. He was scared to death too, this whole men having babies thing was so new, hell Justin was the first person to be doing it. Taking a deep breath he made AJ look him in the eye.  “Alex, I love you so much and I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure you don’t get hurt.” He said kissing AJ’s head. AJ smiled big and sniffed back tears.  “I love you too.” ******@***** Vanessa looked around the corner trying to see if anybody was watching the room. Smirking to herself when she knew nobody would notice she sneaked back into the waiting room walking back to Howie.  “Hey sweetie.” She said smiling sweetly. Howie didn’t even look up from the magazine he was looking at just grunted his hello. Vanessa glared at the magazine, trying to come up with a plan.  “Howie honey…I want to show you something.” Howie put the magazine down enough so he could look at Vanessa.  “What is it?” Vanessa put her hand on Howie’s thigh and started to inch is upwards.  “Oh…nothing much just a little surprise.” Howie looked at Vanessa in shock and cleared his throat.  “A surprise?” Vanessa nodded and licked her lips.  “Yeah, but you got to come with me If you want to see it.” She said holding her hand out for Howie to take. Wondering what in the world was going on Howie took Vanessa’s hand and let her lead him out of the room. Once they were outside Vanessa looked around to see if anybody was looking again and walked quickly to the room she had scouted out earlier. Opening the door she turned on the light, tugging Howie into the room and pressing her lips to his. Howie kissed Vanessa back for a second but stopped and pushed her away gently “Whoa, hold on a second…what’s gotten into you?” Vanessa looked at Howie innocently.  “What do you mean what’s gotten into me, I’m just doing what you’ve wanted me to do for months now.” Pure confusion was still written all over Howie’s face, he didn’t get what happened to his fiancé. The only thing he could think of was that something from another planet had come down and replaced ‘his’ Vanessa with a pod Vanessa. “I haven’t wanted you to do anything Vanessa.  I thought you knew by this point that I respected your decision to wait until after we are married.” Vanessa moved to push Howie against the wall but he put his hands out and moved away.  “Vanessa…stop it.” Vanessa pouted and looked at Howie with sad eyes.  “You don’t want me, I knew it.” Howie’s eyes went wide and he shook his head like crazy.  “Of course I want you…but I know this is a mistake and you are going to regret it later.” “No I’m not…I want you Howie.” Vanessa said moving towards Howie again. “I want your children.” Howie sighed and smiled at Vanessa, he understood what was going on now.  “Vanessa…come here.” Vanessa smirked and walked into Howie’s arms knowing she would break him, but was shocked when he just hugged her tight.  “Uh…Howie?” “You want babies, is that what this is all about?” Closing her eyes Vanessa nodded and tried to move away from Howie, but he held her tighter. “Please…let me go I just embarrassed myself to death.” Howie didn’t let her go instead he kissed the top of her head.  “Nope, I want us to sit down and talk about this.” He said looking around the room and laughed noticing they were in the broom closet. “The broom closet?” Vanessa blushed and shrugged. “It was the only room that I noticed nobody went into.” Howie laughed again and smiled.  “You are too cute, but why do you want a baby all of a sudden?” “Everybody is pregnant, or having a baby. I want that too.” She said looking down at her feet. “But do you honestly want a baby before we are married?” Howie asked making Vanessa look him in the eye. Vanessa just shook her head and cuddled up to Howie. *****@***** “Ok Justin, this is how this is going to work. We are going to take you into the operating room in about 15 minutes. Once you are in there we are going to actually put you under since we don’t know how well your stomach will numb. The once you are asleep it will only take 5 minutes at the most to get the baby out.” Doctor Keller explained. A teary eyed Justin nodded as he hung onto Nick’s hand for dear life. Once doctor Keller was out of the room Justin broke down in tears.  “I can’t do this Nick…I can’t!” Nick wrapped Justin in his arms tears falling down his own cheeks.  “What have I been telling you all day, everything is going to be fine? You need to think positive. In less then a half an hour we will have our baby and he or she is going to be perfect.” ******@***** Brian, Leighanne, Aaron and Hailie ran onto the floor of the hospital and into the privet waiting room.  Kevin jumped out of his seat when he saw Brian run into the room.  “God I didn’t think you guys were going to make it. They are taking Justin into the operating room in less then ten minutes now.” “You have no idea what its like outside right now. I think every news paper and fan, and fans cousin is outside this hospital. One of them almost trampled Hailie….” Brian was cut off when guys with video cameras came into the room “What the hell do you think you are doing?” Kevin exclaimed seeing the men. “We’re from TLC…we are supposed to be filming ‘A Baby Story’ One of the men said as he got the camera set up. Kevin groaned and ran his hand through his hair. They did not need this right now.  “I don’t think you guys will be able to get back and see Justin, he’s gunna be going into the operating room in less then ten minutes.” Marshall nodded. “Yeah, and you guys aren’t allowed back there, we aren’t even allowed back there.” “Well then, we’ll just tape you guys.” The man said smiling. *****@***** Meanwhile ‘back there’ Justin was being wheeled to the operating room with Nick all decked out in scrubs walking beside the stretcher.  They were both relieved when the doctor said Nick could be back in the room with Justin. Doctor Keller met them in the room and smiled. “Don’t worry so much guys, I’m positive everything is going to be ok.” Justin shook his head.  “You can’t promise somebody that, especially with something that has never been done before.” Nick just kissed Justin’s hand and sat on the little stool where a nurse told him to sit. He watched as they covered Justin with a blanket that had a hole in it where his stomach was showing through. Nick prayed he really could handle this. Taking a few deep breaths he was ready to be the strong one again. A middle aged nurse walked up to the boys and smiled. “Hello, I’m Anna and I’m the anaesthetist, I’ll be the one putting Justin to sleep here in a few minutes.” “Make sure its powerful enough, I don’t wana be waking up in the middle of everything.” Justin said trying to joke. Anna laughed and nodded. “Don’t worry about that Mr. Timberlake.” *****@***** Hailie did another dance for the camera.  “And that is what I like to call my African ooga booga dance.” She said smiling big. Aaron was the only one that laughed, since this was the tenth dance the little girl had done, and most of them looked exactly the same. Marshall glared at Aaron because he knew the only reason his daughter was showing off like that was because she was getting a reaction from Aaron. “What did I do?” Aaron asked totally confused. Kevin rolled his eyes and sighed looking down at his clock. It was two minutes past 1am and Justin was supposed to have gone under at 1am. He bounced his legs up and down in the chair, trying hard to think of something else, rather then his friend in the middle of a life altering surgery. “What me to show you my Cubin Fora Bora dance?” Hailie asked Aaron. Aaron looked around the room to see everybody glaring at him and he sighed. “How about when we get home, I don’t think the Cubin Fora Bora dance is really a good idea right now, everybody is worried about Justin and the baby.” Hailie sighed and nodded.  “Okay.” *****@***** Nick watched Justin fall asleep and started to pray like crazy. He prayed that his baby would be ok, that Justin would wake up, and that they would be great parents. Tears were falling down his cheeks as he heard the doctors calling things to each other that Nick didn’t understand. “His heart beat is dropping.” Anna called, looking at Justin’s heart monitor. That brought Nick out of his trance and he looked around the room with scared worried eyes.  “W…what does that mean…what’s going on?” He panicked, Doctor Keller looked at Nick and sighed.  “Somebody take him out of here please.” One of the doctors took Nick by the arm and started to lead him out of the room. “NO….I’M NOT LEAVING!” Nick screamed, tears falling down his face as he was literally dragged out of the operating room. “I’m sorry Mr. Carter but they need to be able to concentrate on Mr. Timberlake, and they can’t do that if you are in there freaking out.” The doctor said before turning to go back into the room where he belonged, leaving Nick out in the hallway all alone. Nick sunk to the ground and started to sob into his hands. He could feel his whole world crumbling beneath him. ******@***** AJ shook awake from his dream he was having and looked up at the clock in the waiting room. It was almost 2am and they hadn’t heard anything about Justin yet. At least he didn’t think they had. Yawning he rubbed his eyes.  “Have they said anything?” Marshall shook his head, worry written all over his face.  “Nothing.” Even Hailie seemed to know something was wrong as she cuddled up to Aaron another one of the couches. The room was silent even the ‘Baby Story’ people had long stopped asking questions. ******@***** Nick didn’t even look up when he heard somebody walk out into the hallway. It had happened too many times in the last hour he learned not to care. “Nick?” Doctor Keller said keeling down next to the younger man. Nick looked up at the other man’s tired face and automatically got scared and started shaking his head like crazy.  “No…no…no..NO!” “Whoa, hold on there and let me talk before you go all crazy on me.” Doctor Keller said holding the younger man’s hand.  “Justin and your son are just fine.” He said smiling. It took a second for Nick to register what the doctor has just said, but when he did he got a big smile on his face and jumped up.  “I have a son….a son!” he screeched running around the hallway. Doctor Keller laughed.  “Yes, they are perfectly fine, it just took us longer then expected because we didn’t know exactly how the baby was positioned in Justin, but once we were in the baby was out and he is great. 8 pounds 7 oz.” Nick smiled even bigger.  “C..Can I see him?” “You can see your son yes…but Justin needs to be in recovery for a few hours so we can let the drugs ware off.” Nick nodded understanding and followed the doctor to the nursery where the baby had been placed. He then remembered all his friend sitting out in the waiting room. “Would you excuse me for a second, I need to go talk to my friends.” With that Nick walked back towards the waiting room. *****@***** Brian had started to pace the room by this point, worry getting too strong to just sit still.  Granted he was never that close to Justin, but Nick was his best friend, so if he was hurting, then he would be too.  “Where the fuck are they!” Nick laughed as he walked into the room.  “Geez, Brian that is quiet language you are using.” Everybody turned to Nick and started asking him questions all at once. “What took so long?” “What is it?” “Is it ok?” “How’s Justin?” “How are you?” Nick shook his head laughing. “Whoa, hold on guys one a time. First off it took so long because I guess they had to make sure they didn’t cut vital organs or something. Secondly it’s a boy and Justin is fine, and I’m ecstatic.” Everybody took turns giving Nick hugs and saying congratulations. *****@***** Later that morning Justin opened his eyes and blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was. Then it all hit him. He had a baby, wait at least he thought he did. That was when he noticed Nick holding a bundle in his arms, talking softly. “Hey little guy, you are a cutie you know that.” Nick whispered talking to the baby. Justin felt tears coming to his eyes. “Why don’t you bring him over here so daddy can see him?” Nick turned to look at Justin and smiled.  “I didn’t mean to wake you.” He said as he got up and walked to the bed handing the baby to Justin Justin shook his head.  “You didn’t, I work up on my own.” He said taking the baby in his arms smiling wide.  “Wow…our baby.” “Yeah our baby that still needs to be named.” Nick said smiling.  “We never did choose one.” Justin looked down at the blue eyed little boy and thought for a second.  “Joshua…Joshua Nickolas.”