“Josh? What’s going on? Who is that? I mean…I know who it is but what…”

“Miss Chasez, if you’ll go with Jonathan he’ll show you to your rooms. Mr. Chasez, Mr. McGrath, please have a seat.”

We continue to stand near the doorway when someone approaches from behind and closes the door, “I’d sit down if I were you. He only asks politely once and I can guarantee you don’t want to piss him off.”

I move towards the couch, dragging Mark behind me. Once we are seated the other two men in the room take seats on either side of us.

Mark turns to the man who had entered the room after us, “What’s going on here and who is this guy?”

“THAT is Oversight and he’s here to see that JC really is pregnant. Once the tests have concluded whether he is or not then we’ll talk further.”

“But I thought you were Oversight,” Mark states, confusion written clearly on his face.

“Mark, stop. Oversight obviously can’t just show himself to anyone. He has to be careful sweetie. So who are you really?” I say squeezing Mark’s hand.

“I’m in charge of his security, the name’s William.”

“William will you please get the doctor?” The man now known as Oversight states. As soon as William left the room he turns to me, “I’m Sean, it’s nice to meet you. We just need to get a blood sample so we can ensure you are healthy. I’m sure that three tests are plenty accurate. We just can’t be too careful from now on, for your sake and that of the baby.” He gets up and looks out the window, “You have free reign of the estate and your friends should be here within the hour. There is a studio in the East wing. Your rooms are in the South wing and your friends will all be in the North one. The West wing holds the kitchen and family/living area. Once the doctor checks you over I will be heading back to Scotland. William knows how to contact me if necessary.”

I sat back and leaned my head back on the back of the couch, “Is there any way I can get some water please?”

“You feeling ok Josh?” Mark leans towards me and places a hand on my stomach.

“I’m fine baby just a bit queasy.”

William came back toward us with a glass of water in his hand, which he hands to me. “This is the one,” he states.

“Ok, Mr. Chasez, I’m gonna need to take some blood and do an exam. If you’ll take your shirt off and undo your pants so I have access to your lower abdomen please.” He looks at Mark, “Could you please move so that he can lay down?”

Mark gets up and moves behind the couch his hand still in mine. He flinched a bit as I tightened my grip at the sight of the needle in the doctor’s hand. “Josh sweetie, take a deep breath and it’ll be over soon.”

The doctor takes the blood and disappears through the door he’d entered. He returns about 30 minutes later pushing a small cart with what resembled a television on the top of it. He pushes it up next to the couch, smiles down at me and then turns his attention to our host, “Sir, it seems he is indeed pregnant. I need to do an exam and then we can do the Ultra Sound.” He turns back to me, “Do you have any idea when this might have happened?”

“Um…well, actually…yeah. It was exactly 2 months ago tomorrow,” I smile.

“Ok, so you’re about 60 days?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I reply.

“Ok so that makes you around 8 weeks. Your due date will be around November 5th. Now lets take a look at you young man.”

The doctor begins the exam as he would any other, taking my blood pressure, temperature and listening to my heartbeat. After he’s done with all that he moves the cart he’d pushed in and smiles at Mark, “You may want to move around here so you can see. There won’t be much to see yet but…”

Mark lets go of my hand and moves around to the front of the couch. I sit up just enough for him to sit and then I lay my head in his lap, “Is this ok?” he questions.

“It should be fine. Can you see the screen well enough?”

We both state that we can. At this point Sean comes around and stands behind the couch so that he can see for himself.

The doctor flips the machine on so it can warm up a bit, rubs some slimy gel stuff on my lower abdomen and pulls out this thing that resembles a computer mouse. He places the end of the mouse shaped scanner in the middle of the glob of gel and begins to move it around. When he’s finally happy with the placement of it he smiles at me and then at Mark, “See that small black spot right there?” He places a finger on the screen.

“Yeah,” we state together.

“That is your baby. Like I said, not much to see yet but that it.”

I look at the screen for a minute trying desperately to see a baby in that little spot of black.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to tell it’s a baby the next time we do this. I’m gonna be staying in the guesthouse on the other side of the pool and I would like to examine you once a week just to make sure everything is going fine. We’ll only do an Ultra Sound once a month unless we find something wrong. You seem to be very healthy so I’m just gonna give you a prescription for some prenatal vitamins and some iron pills.” He hands me two bottles of pills. “These,” he lifts the Iron pills a bit. “Will cause some constipation but as long as you drink plenty of water and eat fiber you shouldn’t have any trouble. If you do just let me know and I can give you a stool softener. These others are just regular vitamins, they shouldn’t affect you in any way.”

“If I’m healthy, then what do I need extra Iron for?” I ask.

“Well, women usually have a higher level of Iron in their blood that the baby uses to feed off of. You being a male, have a lower level to begin with and you are border line anemic. As long as you take these you should be fine.”

“Ok. Thank you doctor.” I smile.

“So everything is fine with him and the baby?” Sean asks.

“As far as I can tell right now they are both very healthy.”

“Good. JONATHAN!!!”

“Yes sir,” Jonathan states as he enters the room.

“Will you please show these gentlemen to their wing of the house and ensure they both have lunch. Make sure my plane is ready to leave in 2 hours please.”

“Yes sir.” Jonathan states, bowing and then turns to Mark and I. “If you would like to follow me please.”

I stand slowly, still getting a little dizzy from the blood moving so quickly. Mark grabs my arm and steadies me. Once my stomach has settled again I reach for my shirt, putting it back on and redoing my pants.

“Food sounds good. I’m starving.” I state as we follow Jonathan out of the room. I turn my head towards Sean, “Thank you for doing this. I know you don’t have to. If there is ever anything I can do to repay this debt, please let me know.”

“Just take care of yourself and have a healthy baby.” Sean smiles. “And you could name it after me, if it’s a boy of course.”

I smile at him and state, “I could do that. You are, after all, our savior.” I walk out and take Mark’s hand, “Come on baby.”

“Josh? Are you ok?” Mark looks at me strangely as Jonathan leads us down the hall.

“Baby, I’m fine. I think I’ve just finally realized that we’re gonna have a baby and….well…I’m getting kinda excited now. There is nothing we can do about it but accept it. Baby we’re gonna have a baby. Aren’t you excited?”

“Yes. I’m just worried about you sweatheart. You haven’t felt good for days and now all of a sudden you’re back to your old self, almost.”

Jonathan opens a huge door and leads the way in, “Here you are gentlemen. This will be your home for the next year. If you need anything, anything at all, feel free to ask. You have access to an outside line if you’d like to talk to your families. The line is secure and it can’t be traced. Mr. Chasez, please try to refrain from staying on the line too long when talking with your mother at their home address or cell phone. Your father is the only person in Section that could possibly find a way to trace the calls. If you must contact your mother, please call and have her go to another house or something and then call her back. This is for the safety of you, Mr. McGrath and your baby. Welcome to the manor and congratulations. I’ll have Margarita bring your dinners up soon. You shouldn’t be want for anything. Madeline had a very complete dossier on both of you, hopefully we have everything you need.”

Mark and I wandered around the massive expanse of rooms for a while and then Mark turned to me and stated, “Baby, we’re never leaving here. This one part of the house is bigger than both of ours together. The servants, or whatever you want to call them, are friendly and that doctor was great.”

“Yeah, well they don’t get me some food soon I might start chewing on my own arm. I can’t believe how hungry I am.” I walk down the corridor and into a room, “MARK!! Baby, come here. You’ve got to see this.”

Mark joins me and his jaw hits the floor. When he recovers from the shock he takes my hand and leads me into the room, “Guess they wanted to make sure they got the color scheme just right.”

We walk around admiring the paintings on the wall then I start looking closely at the way the room is set up. /What do they know that we don’t? Something just isn’t right here. Why do they have so many set up if…/

“So baby? Which crib do you like? I like this one but I prefer the colors on that one.”

“I think they’re all beautiful Mark. But I think maybe once the baby is here we could mix and match them all and make it however we want.” I walk out of the room and down the corridor some more. /How long does he think we’re staying once I have this baby? I’m not so sure I’m gonna want to stick around here once it’s been born./

“Baby? What are you thinking about? You keep drifting off into your own little world. What’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours?” Mark wraps his arms around me from behind.

I lean my head back and sigh, “Just a bit suspicious. Guess it’s the operative in me to question everyone’s motives all the time.”

“You just relax babe, let me do the worrying for now. Ok?”

“Lets see if we can find the bedroom in this mass of rooms. So far I’ve seen 5 cribs with accessories, a library, 3 bathrooms, an office and one long ass hallway, but no bedroom.” I step forward and out of Mark’s arms, but slide my hand down and take his hand in mine.

“Well, guess we better find that. That’s like the most important thing in the world for you right now. Oh and you forgot to list that big ass room over there with the entire gym set up in it. Guess they did do their homework on both of us. I think it has every machine I’ve ever even put a hand on in there.” He smiles and then breaks out into a full laugh. “This place is so damn big we’re never gonna leave our side of the house. Can you imagine, it’ll take half the day to walk to the studio section of the house? Why would anyone want a place this damn big?”

“I haven’t got a clue,” I respond as I step into the last room. “Ah, finally.” I take a flying leap at the bed and land with a bounce smack in the middle of the bed. “Baby, I think I’m in heaven.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more Josh.” He smiles at me from the doorway. “You care for a little company there babe?”

I look around the bed, “I think I could make room for you.” I scooch over a bit and Mark lies down next to me.

We lay there for a while, just enjoying the peace and quiet. He finally rolls over on his side and looks at me for a few minutes. I turn my head and look into the loving green eyes, “What?”

“Are you sure you’re ok? This is just….”

“Crazy? Strange? What?” I smile, rolling to my side. I place a hand on his cheek and slowly slide it down to his chest. “Would you believe I’m fine. Yeah, I’m still a bit queasy but other than that I don’t feel any different.”

“Good.” He leans over and kisses me. “I love you Josh.”

“Love you too baby.”

“Why don’t you see if you can get some rest before the others get here. You know Chris and Joey are gonna be freaking out when they get here and I’m surprised AJ, Nick and Brian haven’t invaded the place yet.”

“Yeah, that is a bit…” I trail off as I hear a group of voices coming down the hall, all talking very excitedly. “Never mind. Here they come now.”

Mark rolls his eyes, “So much for peace and quiet. You think Sean would mind if we locked the doors at our end of the hallway?”

“Doubt it, especially if he’s met AJ and Chris. Those two are freaking scarry together.” I smile. I reach over and give him a quick kiss before we are invaded by the mass of people.

“Dude,” AJ starts. “This place rocks. Who’s it belong to anyway?”

“Yeah, you should see where they got us Jayce. It’s amazing. Well…It’s not as nice as what you and Mark have here.” He looks around, “Damn, how come you guys got a whole wing?”

“Cuz he’s the guest of honor you idiot.” Lance states as he baps Chris in the back of the head. “He is the one that is responsible for us all having this wonderful break. HEY DJ…We found them, get your ass away from those cribs and get in here.”

Justin walks through the door, “Man…How many fucking kids you having Jayce? Why they got an entire nursery set up down there?”

“I have no idea,” I state as I meet Kevin’s green eyes. He just smiles and nods. /At least one person is as suspicious as I am. That makes me feel a little better./

I watch as the rest of our circle of trusted friends filter in. Once they are all in the room Mark looks from each person, “You’re all in the North wing? How big is that wing?”

Jeff looks at him for a minute and then smirks, “Take this one and double it, you’ll be pretty close.”

“Shit, this place is huge.”

“Yeah and it’s ours for the next year so lets make the best of it.” I smile and lean back against the headboard. “So anyone have any ideas on how we can stay busy while we’re here? You know we’re gonna have to come up with at least 4 new cd’s by the time we leave. You think the fans will mind a few crossovers or collaborations?”

Rodney looks around the room, “Well this next year is gonna be one of three things. It’s either gonna be very entertaining, very bad, or very productive. I’d like to be on the productive bandwagon myself.”

“You’re absolutely right. Lance? Why don’t you, Brian, Jeff and DJ get together and see if we can work out some schedules for the studio. Mark and I have a piano here in this wing…”

“There’s one in our wing and one in the studio also JC,” Kevin states. There shouldn’t be too much trouble with being creative. But you’re the only one with any production experience. You think our host would mind if we brought in your friends Riprock and AG?”

“Don’t think that’s a problem.” A voice from the doorway stated.

I looked up and spotted the two men, “Hey guys. Welcome to the party. Anyone explain what’s going on yet?”

“No.” Brad states as he approaches the bed, “That fella Jonathan said he’d let you explain, and showed us down here. He also said that we’d have to stay at this end of the house cuz the rest is full.”

“Cool. I think I spotted an empty bedroom down the corridor a bit and I’m sure one of you could sleep in the nursery for now.” I state. “So now we have production taken care of. Looks like we’re either gonna be playing our own instruments or Mark’s boys are gonna have to give us a hand in that department.”

“Not a problem,” the four other men of Sugar Ray stated together.

“Ok, then. Looks like the important stuff is taken care of. Now time for fun.” AJ states as he takes off down the hall. “Last one in the pool is a rotten egg.”