Chris let herself into the production truck, thankful to see nobody else was around. She'd had a sneaky suspicion for some time now that Julia had been hiding footage from her, and Brian's bombshell today about Kevin was the icing on the cake. It was time she found out for herself.
She sat down in front of the tape library and scanned the labels. God, where to start...there were so many. She flipped through the stacks, locating Kevin's wall. Nothing looked out of place, but then again, what would it do, jump out at her?
Chris sighed, and started rooting through the file cabinets in the truck. If she were Julia, where would she stash tapes.... "Bingo," she opened a drawer and found a stack of tapes. Checking the label on the top one, she cursed. "Nicky?" Why was Julia hiding stuff for Nick? She pulled out the pile and checked the labels. Most of them were Kevin's, but there were a few scattered Nick, Howie and AJ tapes thrown in. "How could she have hidden this much..."
She threw the tapes into a bag and headed back to her hotel room. She had a very long night ahead of her.
************************************************
"And that's that." Chris turned off the tv with a sigh, throwing the last tape on the table, thankful she was done with the nasty ask of watching them.
As best she could figure, Julia had been sleeping with Kevin for well over six months now, and hiding the tapes of the affair. Julia had also hidden a few tapes where Nick wasn't as careful as he may have thought he was with his rendezvous, a tape where Howie could clearly be seen taking some kind of drug, then passing out, and a few tapes of AJ. While not necessarily anything they would have wanted to air, certainly not footage Julia should have just hidden. She had buried days of footage from each of the guys. No wonder it had been no big deal to her to hide the tape of AJ's speech.
Chris sighed and shook her head. Now what to do. If something like this had happened back in New York, Julia would have found herself out of a job, no question. But they were on tour, getting towards the end, even, and training someone to do Julia's job (and get them used to being on tour) would take almost as long as they had left. She looked up at a knock on her door and went to answer it. "Brian?"
"Hey." He was smiling, that had to be a good sign.
"What's up?"
Brian shrugged, shook his head. "Nothing, just bored. Nick's with his parents, Leighanne's back home, and I'm not at all tired. We haven't really talked in a while, thought it could be nice?" He looked at her hopefully.
"Sure," Chris waved him in.
"Sorry about what happened before, between me and Julia...you didn't need to see that." He apologized, sitting down next to her on the bed.
Chris laughed lightly. "Actually, it was exactly what I needed to see."
"What do you mean?"
She looked at him closely, trying to decide if she should tell him what she'd discovered. "Julia's been hiding tapes from me."
"Of what?"
"Her and Kevin, among other things."
"What other things?" Brian's voice was soft as he asked the question. At this point, nothing could shock him, but he did dread what else could go wrong.
Chris shook her head quickly. "No, nothing new, don't worry. All things we already knew about. Just hard proof that they'd been going on for a long time."
"Things like?"
"AJ getting angry and saying stupid things when he's drunk. AJ with Julia. Nick sleeping with girls he doesn't know. Howie taking the sleeping pills. Things like that."
"She knew all along?" Brian couldn't keep the hurt out of his voice. If Julia knew, why wouldn't she tell anyone?
"It looks that way, yeah."
"Oh wow." He stared at the floor, dazed. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Chris confessed. "Logic dictates I should fire her."
Brian looked at her. "If you did that, Kevin couldn't keep seeing her either."
"I didn't think about that," she nodded, "but yeah, I guess there's a side benefit. But I can't take the time to train someone new to do Julia's job, and I don't think I have anyone already working on the show competent enough to do her job."
"So you're just going to ignore it?"
"No, I'm going to talk to her, and let her know if she does this again, she will be fired, no matter how valuable she is to the tour."
"And about Kevin?"
"What can I do, Brian, I'm her boss, not her mom." She sighed. "I may not personally agree with what she's doing, but I can't stop her..."
Brian shook his head. "This is different, he's married."
"I'm still just her boss, you're his cousin, deal with him!"
"I'm trying!" Brian threw up his hands in frustration. "He keeps brushing me off. Did you see anything on those tapes to clue you in?"
"I fast forwarded through most of them, I just looked to get the idea of what they were." She pointed towards the table. "You're welcome to them if you really want, but it's a bit perverse, watching people like that."
"No thanks," Brian shuddered. "I just wish I could get him to really talk to me about what's going on with Kristin. There's something he's not telling me, I know there is."
"He'll open up to you eventually, just keep trying."
"Yeah, right, eventually." Brian sighed, and turned back to face her. "So you said Nicky was on those tapes too?"
"Yup." Chris nodded.
"You ok?"
She chuckled. "With seeing Nick with one girl after another on those tapes? Probably not. But I'm feeling nothing right now. I think I'm just really tired."
"It is late," Brian checked the clock on the nightstand. "Early." He corrected himself. "Not to defend what Nick did, but..."
"Don't," Chris cut him off. "I told Nick, I'll tell you, he doesn't owe me an explanation."
"Of course he does, Chris," Brian looked at her in surprise. "Why would you think he wouldn't?"
"I'm not his girlfriend, he doesn't have to answer to me."
Brian laughed. "So because you're not his girlfriend, you're not supposed to care about what he did? That makes no sense, otherwise I wouldn't care."
"You know what I mean..."
"No, I don't." He shook his head. "I made Nick explain to ME why he was sleeping around like that, and I'm not his girlfriend. I did it because he's my little brother and I care about why he'd do something so stupid. You care too, I know you do." He looked at her closely. "Otherwise your eyes wouldn't have gotten all teary when I asked how you felt about seeing Nick on the tapes."
"My eyes did not get teary." Chris protested.
"They did." He smiled. "Because you care about Nick, you cared when you saw him doing something bad for him. There's nothing wrong with that."
She shrugged. "I guess." So she couldn't get the picture of Nick with those girls out of her head. Seeing him kissing them, naked with them, made the whole fact that he'd done what he had a bit too real. It wasn't something anybody ever really needed to see anybody do, much less someone they had been with themselves. Kinda made you feel a bit, well, cheap.
"You and Nick have a chance at something really special, don't you see that?" Brian said softly.
"Brian..." Right, she thought, me and the twenty girls on those tapes.
"I know you don't want to hear it. But we have less than three months left, and I think both of you will regret it if nothing ever happens."
"Something did happen Brian, isn't that the problem?" Chris replied. Things were better between the two of them before the Caribbean than after, weren't they?
"He's a really good guy, Chris, and all he wants is to love you."
"You're being idealistic, now. Nothing in life is that simple."
"I'm an idealistic guy." He smiled. "And so's Nicky."
"I'm a New Yorker. That makes me a pessimist by default." She yawned. "And a tired one, at that.'
"I should let you go to bed." Brian stood up and hugged her. "We have rehearsal bright and early."
"Yippee." She hugged him back. "Thanks for coming by."
"I'm glad I did. Goodnight."
Chris closed the door behind him, trying not to think too much about what he'd just said. "All he wants is to love me, huh," she sighed, getting into bed. "If only things were that simple..."
********************
Chris woke up to a pounding on the door. "Wait a second," she groaned, looking at the clock. 5 o'clock in the morning, who the hell could it be? And why didn't Elaine stop them? She made her way to the door in the dark and opened in, giving a start when she saw who was on the other side. "Kevin?"
"Hey," Kevin looked awful, his eyes were glazed over and bright, his hair going in every direction, his clothes wrinkled. "Do you have any cash on you, by any chance?"
"What?" Chris rubbed her eyes and looked at him carefully. What did he just say?
"Money..." he waved his hands around as he tried to explain, "We're just getting back now, and the limo we took for the night only takes cash, and I'm all out, so's everyone else.."
"Who's we?" She eyed him carefully.
Kevin shrugged. "Sorry, Chris, but please stay out of that. Can I borrow some money or not?"
"How much?"
"$300"
"Three hundred dollars for a limo?" Chris couldn't help express her disgust over the blatant waste of money. "Jesus."
"Do you have it?" He was getting impatient.
"Yeah, hang on," Chris left him standing in the doorway as she went back into the room, flicking on lights as she went. She'd learned early on the tour to hit a cash machine as often as she saw one, and keep a lot of cash on hand, ATM's were rare around hotels, and it was difficult getting out to one when they needed to. She'd definitely been in Kevin's position before. She located her purse and counted out $300, she had a little over $500 on her at the moment. "Here," she handed Kevin the cash.
"Thanks," He ran down the hall without another look, disappearing into the elevator.
Chris shook her head and went back into her room, cursing Kevin for waking her up so early. There was no way she was going to get back to sleep now. She looked at the 'Directory of Services' for the hotel and found a gym listed. "That works." She slipped on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed her discman and headed down to the gym.
At the early hour the gym was nearly empty, and Chris had her selection of a number of machines to work out on. She chose a Stairmaster, and settled in, soothing music on her discman.
"Hey," Kevin was standing in front of her, now wearing a wifebeater and shorts, towel around his neck, sweating.
Chris pulled her headphones off and slowed on the Stairmaster, "Hey, I figured you'd be in bed."
Kevin smirked. "Yeah, I bet you figured..."
"So what are you doing here?" It was too early for small talk.
"Couldn't sleep." He shrugged. "I'm gonna grab breakfast after I shower, you wanna join me?"
Chris eyed him carefully. Something was very strange about him this morning. "No, thanks, I'm just going to finish here and get dressed."
"Ok, I'll see you later," Kevin waved and walked off.
Chris put her headphones back on, puzzled. Kevin gets home at 5 in the morning in a limo, with no cash, and goes right to work out? She sighed and got off the Stairmaster. She hated times like this...there was something connecting the three, the limo, the cash, the working out, she knew there had to be. She just didn't know what that thing was, and was worried about just how bad that thing had to be. "Kevin, what the fuck are you doing," she muttered to herself as she grabbed her towel and headed back up to the room. Maybe she could talk to Brian about this, maybe he'd have an idea? "But Kev's his cousin..." Or maybe not.
******************************
The day had passed in the usual flutter Chris now associated with Monday's, turning in the paperwork for the show (made difficult by Nick skipping rehearsal that morning, he ended up signing before actually seeing the episode when he appeared right before the show that night) and putting the final edit together, with one new twist. She was also avoiding Julia. She still wasn't sure how she was going to handle the situation, and until she'd decided what to do, she didn't want to see her at all. Julia hadn't sought her out yet, which meant she either didn't see yesterday's conversation with Brian, or she did, and knew better than to chase her down. Chris didn't know what would be better...proof Julia was doing a half-assed job reviewing the footage, or proof she didn't seem to care about anything.
Which was why she found herself waiting alone backstage for her cue. She watched the guys dance and sing on stage, a smile on every one of their faces. You'd never know by looking at them what was going on...was she going to be able to plaster on the same smile? The lights went out and she made her way on stage, taking her place.
"Good luck, Chrissy." Nick put his hand on her waist and squeezed gently.
Chris felt her tummy flop as the song started, and was a split second off. She muttered a curse and threw herself back into the dance, making up for her mistake with her enthusiasm. They finished and she ran off the stage with a wave, surprised to find a smile on her face. "Guess it wasn't so bad." She laughed, and headed back to the hotel.
Once back in her room, she changed into her Mickey's and PJ's and settled in for the night. The show would be airing tonight, and she was very curious to see how the public would react to it. This would be a good night to stay in and watch the chatrooms and message boards on the Internet as the show ran. She turned on CNN and grabbed the room service menu, checking the clock. She jumped slightly at the knock on the door, she'd been absorbed in reading about the hamburger on the menu. God was she tired...
"Hi," Nick smiled when he saw her. "What's up?"
"I was just going to order room service and hang out online while the show ran." She gestured into the room. "Care to join me?"
He shrugged and checked the hall. "I don't see anyone else asking." With a wry smile, he followed her into the room, stopping when he saw her looking at him with a curious expression. "What?"
"You always say things like that." She wasn't upset, more amused, even.
"Like what?"
"You're the only one asking, you're the only one here. Like, if there was anyone else around, you wouldn't be here with me."
"You know that's not what I mean," Nick grabbed her in a hug. "I haven't seen you in two whole days. I missed you."
Chris returned the hug with a smile, nothing could beat the feeling of his arms around her.
"Good." He smiled, sitting down on the bed and pulling her into his arms. "So, what were you going to do for food?"
"What else," Chris pointed to the room service menu. "The usual."
Nick quickly decided what he wanted and Chris placed the order. The food arrived right as the show came on the air and the two ate in silence, staring at the screen. When it was over, they put the empty dishes outside the room and returned to the bed, curling up together in silence.
"That was the first time you saw it." Chris said softly.
"Yeah." Nick replied, in a voice lacking emotion.
"What did you think?"
"Eh." He shrugged. "I think I've kinda gotten to that point where I can't be any more upset, or any more angry, or something. What the fuck is just one more thing, right?"
Chris turned to look into his eyes, kicking herself for not noticing the red tinge to them earlier. "Nick, how did things go with your family?"
He shook his head as tears filled his eyes, and he buried his head in her hair with a soft moan.
She hugged him tight, her hands rubbing his back soothingly. "Nicky, what happened?"
"I thought things were going to be ok," tears were running freely down Nick's face now, and he pulled away from Chris to wipe his face with the back of his hand. "It was so much fun, seeing everyone again..."
Chris grabbed the box of tissues and handed a wad to Nick, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"I," a sob shook him and his arms found Chris again, his head returning to her hair. "I even slept in Aaron's bed last night. God, he missed me so much."
"Of course he did, Nick." Chris held him tight, feeling his body shake with his anguish. "He loves you."
"I love him so much." Nick sniffled, pulling Chris closer to him. "It was really great seeing him. Same for BJ and Angel and Leslie, I missed all of them so much."
Now Chris knew where the problem was, at least. "Your parents?"
Nick gave a small cry and shook slightly. "My dad was fine. My mom...."
"You guys fought?"
"All this morning. She woke me up, dragged me out of Aaron's bed so we could talk. And then she hits me with all this shit, how I'm ruining my reputation and Aaron's with this show, how horribly I've been acting ON the show, how I'm spoiling Aaron's 'innocence' by telling him about things I see on the road....almost all about Aaron. I'm her son too!" He grabbed for another tissue and blew his nose, laughing when a loud honk came out. "Oops."
"Could always run away and join the circus, with that nose." Chris cracked, smiling when Nick did too. "Couldn't resist, sorry."
Nick shook his head and hugged her tight, "I needed a smile. Anyway, I didn't leave on the best of terms. I believe the words 'you are not my son,' were used, to be specific." His voice was calm, but the hurt in his words was undeniable.
Chris felt her heart sink. Poor Nick, my god. She turned to look at him and wasn't surprised to find tears streaming down his face again. "She's a fool, what can I say. Any mother would be proud to have you as a son."
"And people wonder why I don't sing on 'The Perfect Fan.'" Nick remarked with a snort. "You showed me how to love, you showed me how to care, you showed me you would always be there, my ass," he quoted.
She didn't know what to say. How do you apologize for a mother abandoning her son? While she may not know the whole story, certainly no mother says any words like those to her child without knowing full well the emotional impact they're going to bring...how could she do that? "You deserve so much better, Nicky."
Nick snorted. "Yeah, she said that too."
"What?"
He turned onto his side and slid his leg between hers, their bodies moving closer together on the bed. "Nothing, it's not important." He wiped off his face one final time and threw the tissue box off the bed, wrapping his arms around her when he was done. "I keep hearing her in my head...saying I'm not her son..." his voice cracked at the end and he grabbed her tight. "I don't want to cry anymore." He said stubbornly.
"There's nothing wrong with crying, Nicky," Chris said softly, running her hands through his hair, stroking it across his forehead. She watched as his eyes fluttered shut and his head fell back. "Relax." She reached over the turned off the light, "time to go to bed."
"Ok." Nick kicked at her feet. "But the Mickey's gotta come off."
"Sorry," Chris pulled off the slippers and slid back into Nick's arms, their bodies finding the perfect position together.
"Chris?"
"Yup?"
"Do you think my mom's gonna tell Aaron what she said?"
Chris gave a start at the question. "I don't think she'd do that, no." Hopefully not. Nick loved his brother so much....no mother would sabotage that relationship, right? It would be too awful...
"I hope not." He let out a quiet sob and caught his breath. "Sorry."
"I told you, there's nothing wrong with crying." She hugged him tight. "You've certainly seen me do that enough."
"You hate crying, you told me that."
"Yeah, so?"
"Just saying..." he laughed. "I'm just doing exactly what you do. So there."
Chris couldn't help but laugh too. "Yeah, yeah."
"You smell so good." He sniffed her neck, laughing when she squirmed in his arms. "What?"
"That tickles." She shook her head. "You're a goof, you know that."
He smiled that big goofy grin she loved so much. "Yeah," he bent and kissed her softly on the lips. "And you love me for it."
Chris buried her head in his chest, hoping he wouldn't be able to tell how excited that innocent kiss had just made her. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she felt so warm and wet right where her pelvis pressed into Nick's. "We should go to bed."
"Yeah." Nick agreed with a reluctant sigh. "Sweet dreams, Chrissy."
"Good night Nicky."
******************************
A Day in the Life Of... Day 187 Los Angeles
Chris slowly became aware of a ringing from far far away. She was very warm and cozy, but something just wouldn't stop ringing... Her pillow shifted around her and made a strange sound. She opened her eyes to find Nick answering the telephone in the dark, half asleep. "What?"
Nick handed her the phone and laid his head back, eyes closed. It was far too early for him to be awake, phone call or not.
Chris groaned and got out of bed, pulling the phone cord across the room to the sofa. "Yeah? And whoever this is, do you know what time it is?"
"It's 9 in the morning Chris, normal business hours." It was Mike Riley.
"I am in Los Angeles, Mike. Do you know what time that makes it here?"
"Sorry, but you know, television doesn't sleep..." he quipped.
Chris groaned. "So why are you calling me this early?"
"Overnights on last night's episode were through the roof, you did it again. Also, word from Time Magazine is you all impressed the hell out of the reporter, so that's looking to be a great story." He paused to take a breath. "Do you know what Friday is?"
"March 31st?"
"Emmy nominations are announced."
"Ok..." How could Chris not know that the nominations were coming up, the entire television industry lived, breathed and slept the Emmy's. But she worked for a CABLE network, and where the Emmy's were concerned, that made all the difference.
"We're putting the show up for a few nominations."
"Why bother, Mike?" Chris sighed. It was no small task to put a show up for nomination. "It's a waste of time and money, and you know we'd never even get a nomination. We don't fit into the non-fiction stereotype, and we're not a dramatic series."
"You don't know that, the Academy could be changing."
"Oh bullshit, television's still the domain of white middle aged men, don't argue that with me. Networks get the Emmy's, not cable."
"You never know, you're going to be up against, what, 20/20, Dateline, Biography...what do those shows have on the Backstreet Boys?"
"Diane Sawyer, Tom Brokaw," Chris argued. "You're wasting your time."
"Just wanted to let you know what was going on, have a good day, now," and without another word, he hung up.
Chris put the phone down with a frown, looking at Nick sound asleep on the bed. Mike really had to wake her up to tell her that? Alright, maybe a year ago knowing that she'd had amazing ratings and was being put up for Emmy nomination by MTV would have blown her mind. But it just didn't seem all that important right now, not in the grand scheme of things. Not when she considered what she'd given up for the show, to make the episodes that the public loved so much. What all the guys had given up. It just wasn't worth it.
With a sigh she got up and crawled back into bed, Nick rolling around in his sleep to accommodate her. She snuggled into his arms and closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around his back. Feeling safe, that had to be one of the important things in life. And Nick made her feel safe. She listened to Nick's heartbeat, the steady rhythm lulling her into a deep sleep.
*********************************************
Chris sat next to Julia watching the photoshoot, trying to figure out what if anything she should say anything to the other woman. Watching the guys clown around for the pictures, it was like nothing was wrong, they were the same happy group they always were. But inside things were a mess, and she couldn't help but wonder how much of that could be attributed to Julia hiding things from her.
"Are you ok?" Julia tapped her arm lightly.
"Fine," Chris shrugged. "Just tired."
Julia stood up, "Come on, I bet you could use a smoke anyway."
With a sigh, Chris followed Julia outside, sitting down on a bench on the sidewalk. "What's up?"
"Nothing with me, you just seem upset, Nick seems upset, that generally means something's going on."
Chris shook her head. "The two aren't related."
"So what's upsetting you?" Julia's voice was full of concern.
Chris looked at her closely. All the trust she'd previously had in Julia was gone, how was she supposed to just open up to her now, knowing what she'd done. "Mike Riley called early this morning, woke me up. I don't think that's really what's getting on my nerves, but it didn't help."
"What'd he say?"
"They're putting the show up for a few Emmy nominations."
Julia grinned and clapped her hands. "That's fantastic!!"
Chris nodded slowly. "I know."
"So why aren't you happy?"
She sighed. "You know I haven't been very happy with the kind of television we've been producing. I can't feel proud of an Emmy for this..."
"It's good, entertaining television."
"At what cost?" Chris said, her voice rising in anger. "It's not worth it!"
"Chris, don't kid yourself, these guys are so used to what we're doing here, they'd end up doing what they're doing with or without us." Julia replied.
"How can you say that?" Chris stared at Julia. "Howie took those sleeping pills solely because he didn't want to have nightmares on camera. How would that have happened if we weren't here?"
"Howie will live." Julia said dryly. "They'll all be just fine."
"Forget me, what's with you?" Chris took a step away from her. "Don't you care at all about them?"
Julia shrugged. "We're doing a job here, when did you forget that?"
"Don't you realize the damage we've done here?" Chris glared at Julia. "How can you not see that?"
"Such a drama queen." Julia snorted. "We just recorded what happened here, Chris."
Chris threw her cigarette into the street and stood up. "I don't understand you. You don't think sleeping with Kevin and AJ effected these guys?"
Julia jumped up next to her, eyes blazing. "That has nothing to do with it."
"That has everything to do with it." Chris retorted. "You're breaking up Kevin's marriage, you don't think that matters?"
"Kevin's a big boy, he can handle himself." Julia argued. "And AJ's fine."
"Amanda left AJ, and he's not fine."
"You worry too much."
"I don't understand why you're not worrying. Don't you care?"
Julia sighed. "I'm doing a job here, Chris."
"So that's a no."
"Not the way you do, that's obvious." She smiled slightly. "But then again, I haven't fallen in love with one of them now, have I."
"That has nothing to do with anything." Chris shook her head and looked at Julia, "I don't know why, despite all the signs, I thought you were a different person."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's not important." Chris gestured towards the studio. "I'm going back in, I'll see you later."
Julia laughed and waved Chris off, "You're overreacting, silly, see you later."
********************************************************
A Day in the Life Of... (Day 190) Tacoma - Portland
"Wake up."
Chris yawned and batted at the hand tickling her neck. "Stop..."
"You want to wake up, I swear,"
She rolled over and moaned, snuggling into the covers. "Let me sleep."
"Chrissy," Nick bent down and licked her neck, knowing exactly what reaction that'd bring.
Chris' eyes shot open and she stared at Nick. "What was that?"
"Good morning." He smiled. "Care to get up?" He waved a cup of coffee in her face enticingly.
She pushed herself up in bed and looked at him through sleepy eyes. "Why are you so cheery?"
"No reason," he shrugged. He was just in a good mood this morning, he liked waking up with her in his arms. "Shoot, where's the remote." He found it and turned on the television. "Be really stupid if I woke us up for this and then we forgot to watch it."
Chris looked at the television and laughed. "The Emmy nominations."
"Yup, they're announcing them at 7am." Nick grinned. "I figure, since we have to leave at 8 anyway, we might as well hear the nominations live."
"The show won't be nominated for anything." Chris shrugged.
"So then we just get to hang out in bed for an hour." Nick put his arms around her and hugged her tight. "That so terrible?"
"I suppose I'll live." She smiled. She'd spent nearly every spare moment she'd had over the last week with Nick, as much as he hated to show it, he was still extremely upset about his family, and worrying about him helped her forget about her problems with Julia.
"You doing a confession on the road trip today?" Nick could tell that something was bothering her, but until she opened up to him, there wasn't much he could to about it other than be there.
Chris nodded, not one she was looking forward to either, "Kevin."
"He's been acting kinda weird lately," Nick said thoughtfully. "He's been spending a lot of time with Julia too."
"He has?" Chris asked, she hadn't noticed..
He nodded. "Yeah, he's always late because he was with her or something, it seems like." He pointed towards the tv as the announcer prepared to start reading the nominees. "Here we go."
They fell silent as the announcer read through the best actor/actor categories, Nick giving a running commentary on each name as it was announced. "Don't like him," "she's cool," and so on. When they got to best Dramatic Series, he continued, until from the television, "and the final nominee for Best Dramatic Series, and a first in Emmy history, a non-fiction series, A Day in the Life Of.."
Chris screamed and stared at the television, hands clasped over her mouth. "Did they just say?"
Nick jumped up and hugged Chris, grinning from ear to ear. "They did!"
She could hear yelling in other rooms, and before long someone was pounding on the door to the room. "Coming!" Chris opened the door to find AJ smiling on the other side, arms wide open for a hug.
"Gimme a hug, baby, you're an Emmy nominee!" AJ swung her around with a holler, laughing when he bumped into Brian coming to join the celebration.
"Congratulations Chris!" He offered, before finding Nick inside the room bouncing on the bed. "Watch your head on the ceiling there, Nicky."
"I'm fine, Frick," Nick jumped down from the bed, gesturing to the television. "We gotta keep watching, that may not be the only nomination."
Howie arrived a few minutes later, settling in to watch the rest of the broadcast. All in all, the show got 5 Emmy nominations, from Best Editing, to Outstanding Music and Lyrics (which made the guys very happy).
"I can't believe it." Chris was leaning against Nick, his arms wrapped around her stomach, drinking a cup of coffee. "A nomination for Best DRAMATIC series?? And 4 others...wow."
"You deserve them," Howie told her, "you've worked hard on the show."
"You run yourself ragged." Nick agreed with Howie, his arms tightening protectively around her.
"I'm fine," Chris laughed, patting his hands on her stomach. "I'll be fine."
"We're all running a bit ragged." Brian sympathized.
Howie looked at the clock and groaned. "That's touring for you, we gotta run, all."
"Shit." Nick held onto Chris, not wanting to let go. "Can't we just stay here?"
"Sorry Nicky, but no," Chris pushed him off of her, smiling. "I got work to do."
"On your Emmy-nominated show!" Brian cheered.
"I like the sound of that," Chris grinned. "Emmy-nominated."
"Emmy-winning!" Nick cut in. "To soon be Emmy-winning."
"We'll see, Nick, but I doubt it."
"You'll see, Chris." He reassured her confidently. "You'll see."
***********************************************************
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