One Night • j.b

Twelve - Baby Talk

"Crystal, is something wrong?" Worry was laced in his voice, and I felt his hand rested on my shoulder.

I slowly shook my head, not wanting to worry him about my problems. I heard him sigh; he obviously knew I was lying.

"Can you tell me the truth?" Justin asked.

I finally removed my face from the palm of my hands, and turned my head to meet his eyes.

"I don't know, it's just that it's kind of coming to my realization how hard this whole thing is going to be. Being a mom, I mean. You're going to be traveling a lot because of your job and there's nothing we can do about that. Meanwhile I'll be here, raising a child partly on my own no matter how much you want the be there," I paused, looking at the understanding expression on Justin's face. "How are we going to make this whole thing work?"

Justin sighed leaning back to rest his body on the back of the couch. He brought his hands up and rubbed his face, then ran them through his already messy hair.

"I don't know. But we'll find a way, I promise. I was planning on going on tour next year but now that I'm going to have a baby, I don't want to, or at least not once the Baby is actually born. Once I tell Scooter-and the rest of my crew, for that matter-I can ask him if I can possibly get some time off. Like no touring and limited traveling. I doubt my fans could last another year of me doing nothing," he answered.

"Justin, I don't want this to affect your career. I know it's far too important to you to just take another long break from it," I protested. He simply shook his head, not liking my response.

"Crystal, I do love my career but my family comes first, and if it means taking more time off to help be in my child's life, then I'll do it. I'll still do interviews, photo shoots, and awards shows, I'll just be limiting my traveling and how long I'm away. You have nothing to worry about," Justin assured me.

I rested my hands in my lap and played with my fingers. "Yeah, but I still feel like I'm coming in the way of everything. People are probably going to hate you-and me-for getting a girl pregnant they didn't even know about. You're going to be a dad at 21 years old and it's my fucking fault. I just feel like shit because of it. Nothing will ever be that same for you."

My voice was beginning to shake and I felt my vision begin to blur. Fuck, I was about to cry. I made sure my hair was shielding my face from Justin. He couldn't see me like this.

He must have noticed because he gripped my chin in his hand, and turned my head to face him. Wiping the few stray tears that had fallen down my face.

"Hey, this is my fault just as much as it is yours. If anything I'm more at fault because I was more sober than you were. Don't blame yourself for this, babe," I felt my heart flutter at the name. "Everything's going to be okay. I promise. Yeah, they'll be bumps in the road but it'll all turn out fine in the end. We'll make it work, no matter what it takes, we'll make it work."

With that, his lips captured mine a short but very passionate kiss. In just those few seconds where our lips had collided, I felt a whole zoo going crazy in my stomach, and fireworks erupted all through my veins, I couldn't help but wonder if he felt the same thing, or if I was just crazy. When our lips disconnected, Justin pulled back to his sitting position, watching me intently.

"I'm sorry, I'm just over-thinking everything. And my hormones are everywhere right now," I laughed pitifully, wiping the remaining tears off of my face, leaving the skin damp.

"It's fine. I completely understand where you're coming from with the whole 'over-thinking everything' shit. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this whole situation since the second you told me you were pregnant," he told me. "Come here."