Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 19
Early August 2004...
Britney arrived in LA very late at night. She had a show to do and immediately hopped on her private plane to go to LA so she could see her little girl as soon as possible.....and Justin too.
The limo ride to Justin's seemed so long this time. She figured Mackenzie would be asleep but she didn't care. All she wanted to do was stand over her crib and watch her sleep.
Justin was already in bed. He had had a long day of rehearsals. The show started in one week and they were pulling twelve to fourteen hour a day practices but today had been even longer than that. Mainly because Justin needed off tomorrow. His mom had to go back to Tennessee and Britney wasn't due back in until later in the afternoon so they decided to pull a longer day so they could all take a day off. It worked out well.
The limo pulled up into the driveway and she let the driver take her bag up to the front door. She tipped him and then let herself into the house. It was after midnight LA time which meant it was after four am New York time and even though she got some sleep on the plane, she was exhausted.
"Justin?" she said quietly when she entered the house.
Nothing was on....no TV and the only light was a dim light coming from the kitchen area. She climbed the few stairs to where the bedrooms were and dropped her bag in the hallway outside of Mackenzie's room and pushed the door the rest of the way open.
She covered her mouth with her hand as she walked over to the crib. She wanted to pick her up and hold her so badly.
"Hey baby," she whispered. "Mommy's home."
Justin's eyes popped open.
He could have sworn he just heard Britney's voice.
"I missed you so much. So so much...."
He did. He glanced over at the baby monitor and rubbed his eye. She came in early. He should have expected as much.
He hoped that Britney didn't wake Mackenzie up. He had a rough time trying to get her down to sleep tonight. She was feeling better but her sleeping schedule was all out of whack.
When he couldn't take it anymore he got up out of bed and quietly went down the hall. He tripped over Britney's bag which made him softly curse. This startled Britney who glanced up at the doorway. Justin was standing there, holding his toe with a pained expression on his face.
"Hi," she said.
"Hey....come here," he said, standing up straight and holding his hand out.
She glanced back at the baby and then walked over to him. She took his hand and let him lead her out of the room and down the hall to his room.
"I didn't want you to wake her....it took me forever to get her to sleep."
She put her hands on her hips. "I wasn't going to wake her, Justin," she said in an annoyed tone.
He just stared at her.
"Not on purpose, anyway. Why is she having trouble getting to sleep? Did your schedule get her out of her pattern?" she accused.
He sat down on the bed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Fuck Britney. All we've done is fight about her these last few days."
"What last few days. If I recall you hung up on me and pretty much made it clear that you didn't want to talk to me until you saw me here," she said pointing to the floor.
"You know what I mean and no, my schedule didn't get hers out of sync. Her not feeling well did. She's almost back to her normal schedule but not quite. I was hoping tomorrow I'd be able to get her back to normal."
She shook her head and tapped her foot.
"What Britney?" he asked, holding his arms out.
"Nothing," she said before leaving the room.
He got up and followed her. "Don't you dare wake her," he said from the doorway as loudly but as quietly as he could.
"I'm not. I'm going to get my bag so I can go to bed. I'm tired."
She picked the bag up and walked back into his room. He gave her a shocked look as she walked past him. She set her bag down and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
He shook his head and went back to bed. Just as he was about to fall asleep he felt her hand on his stomach slowly inching it's way down toward his waistline. His eyes popped open.
"What are you doing?" he asked in a surprised tone.
She had on a see-thru negligee.
"If you can't tell then it's been too long," she said before kissing his shoulder.
"I thought we were fighting?" he moaned as her hand reached it's destination.
"We are, but that doesn't mean I don't want you," she whispered.
Her hand was massaging him and when he couldn't take it any longer he pulled her to him and kissed her.
This is what she wanted. This was going to be rough lovemaking, something they hadn't had together in a long while. He kissed her breasts through the thin material and pulled her hand from his crotch because he couldn't take it any longer. She ran her fingers through his curls. One of her favorite feelings in the world....the feel of his curls through her fingers.
Later, Britney was laying on top of Justin; he was still inside of her. He was running his hand up and down her back and she lazily rolled her head to the side so she could see his face. His eyes were closed but he was smiling.
"I don't want to move," she said.
"So don't...."
"But I'm so sleepy," she whined.
"Yeah, I could really tell," he chuckled.
"I thought you were tired too," she said. She started to trace a circle on his chest.
"I was....I was just about to fall asleep when you interrupted me," he said while he yawned.
Next thing she knew she was waking up to Mackenzie's crying, but it was in the room with her. She opened and eye and saw Justin standing over her with Mackenzie in his arms. He lowered her down next to Britney on the bed.
"Hold her and I'll go get her juice," he said before leaving the room.
"Huh?" she asked as he walked out the door. "God, Justin....let me wake up a second."
The baby's screaming was giving her a headache. "Hey sweet girl," she said groggily.
She tried to sit up and realized she didn't have anything on so she pulled the sheet up with her and cradled Mackenzie as best she could in her arms.
"Mommy's home....I missed you," she said, leaning down and giving her a kiss.
Mackenzie's crying seemed to die down a little when she realized that Britney was the one holding her, but she was still hungry so she was still crying.
"You've gotten so big......yes, you really have. I think your legs got a little chubbier," she said, gently pinching one of them.
Finally Justin came into the room with a sippy cup.
"What's this?" Britney asked when he handed it to her.
"It's exactly what it looks like," he said, sliding into bed next to her again.
Mackenzie reached out and tried to grab a hold of it so Britney guided the nipple to her mouth.
"Since when is she drinking from that?" she asked.
Mackenzie watched Britney while she drank.
"A couple of days ago. I had one around the house so my mom let her drink out of it," he shrugged.
"Oh."
"That's okay, right?" he asked, not quite sure why she seemed upset about this.
"Yeah."
She sounded disappointed.
"What's wrong?" he asked, rubbing her bare back.
"I just hate missing these kinds of things."
He shook his head. "I checked your schedule. When my mom did this you were doing a photo shoot so you wouldn't have been there anyway."
She stared at Mackenzie a few seconds before what he said just sank in and then she smiled and started to laugh.
"Very funny," she said.
He smiled. "I know. You can't be there for everything...." he said, his lips against her bare shoulder. Then he kissed her there.
"I know I can't. But I want to try...."
He started to run his fingers up and down her back as he watched Mackenzie.
"You're never going to leave her with me again, are you?" he teased.
"Justin....." she started.
"What?"
"I don't know," she mumbled. "I don't want either of us to be away from her," she said looking back at him.
"In a couple of weeks we won't have to be."
"And we survived it without a nanny," she said proudly. "By the way, Jamie Lynn will be meeting me in Philadelphia for my next show and she's going to be my designated babysitter until my tour is over."
"Jamie Lynn, huh?"
"Yeah....she'll be okay."
"Okay," he shrugged as he laid back against his pillow again.
Britney laid Mackenzie in between them and laid back against her pillow and sighed.
"Damn, I was enjoying that view," he winked at her, turning on his side a little.
Britney laughed. "I bet you were. Don't worry, you'll get to see it a lot."
"Promise?" he asked.
Mackenzie threw her sippy cup down and started to babble. She was kicking her legs as she did.
"I think she's saying how much she missed you," Justin said.
Britney chuckled. "You think so? Is that what you're saying beautiful?"
Mackenzie squealed and kicked some more.
"So, any plans for today?" Britney asked when she joined Justin in the family room a little later.
He had a basketball game on that he was watching.
"Well considering I had no idea you'd be here all day...."
She slid around him and sat next to him, throwing her leg over his lap.
"I wanted it to be a surprise..."
"Anyway we probably both need to chill, don't you think?" he asked, resting his hand on her thigh. "Mac down for her nap?" he asked.
"Mac?" she chuckled. "Yes....she is."
"Good....we should talk," he said, turning the TV off and turning his body a little to face her.
She knew it was pretty serious if he was turning the basketball game off.
"About?" she asked a little nervously.
"What went on between us on the phone and when you first got here. I don't like fighting with you and I don't want to fight about our baby."
She glanced down at his hand. "I know....I don't either."
"So do you realize how you sounded on the phone? I felt like I was being accused of not being a good parent," he said, placing his hand against his chest.
"I was scared," she said softly.
"So was I....but I had it under control. I'd never let anything happen to her."
"I know you wouldn't." She wouldn't look up at him.
He waited for her to continue.
"You know how I was about not being with her and I let it get to me. I wasn't in control and I hated it. It freaked me out."
"I'll say. What happened to trusting me?"
She looked up at him.
"I do trust you."
"Trust me with our daughter. And trust my mom with her granddaughter? She loves that little girl more than anything...."
"I know."
Her eyes were getting watery.
"I'll try not to act like that again the next time....." she took a deep breath... "the next time I'm away from her."
He gave her a soft smile.
"Then what was this crap last night?" he chuckled.
She gave him a sexy smile. "Which part?"
"The attitude you gave me right off the bat."
"Oh....well I was just continuing from the phone conversation....I didn't like that you hung up on me like that...I was still pissed," she chuckled.
"So pissed that you attacked me?"
He was pulling her body closer to his.
"Yeah for some reason it made me hot," she said, running her hand up his chest.
"I liked it," he said against her neck and then started to kiss it.
"I thought you might," she giggled when he found a ticklish spot.
He turned serious and pulled away.
"But seriously...."
Her face fell because she was having fun.
"Please don't ever feel that way about me again....."
She kissed him. "I won't. I trust you with her, I really do. It won't happen again. Will you promise to not hang up on me again?"
He thought about it for a second. "I can't promise that."
She slapped his arm and he laughed.
"At least I was nice about it and told you I love you before I did it."
"Yeah, that totally made up for everything," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, I try...."
They started to kiss again and suddenly Justin remembered something.
"Hey," he said, pulling away from her. "You never told me what your news was...."
"Oh....well, it's not important now," she said smoothing out the material of his shirt.
"Come on.....tell me," he said, starting to tickle her.
"Okay, stop it," she laughed.
He lifted his hands away from her.
"Well, they want to do a TV special on my second to last show in DC."
"Really? That will be cool...."
She nodded. "Yeah but here's what we have to think about....they want to have cameras following me all day. Like what I do when I first wake up to what I do when I get off stage after the show."
He nodded. "Okay."
"Mackenzie's a huge part of my day now, Justin."
His smile started to fade. "Oh....I see. You're not sure if you want to expose her like that?"
She shrugged and studied his collar. "Well....I think this might be a good way to expose her but I wanted to make sure you were okay with it. I'd rather have control over how much she's seen on TV then to have tabloids trying to take pictures of her when we don't want them to, you know?"
"Yeah."
"So, what do you think? If you don't want me to do it, I won't...."
"I don't want you to not do this. Will they not do the special if they can't follow you backstage?"
"I don't know what they'll do," she said, looking up at him.
He leaned back a little and rested his head against the couch.
"I've been thinking about this kind of thing off and on. As much as we want to keep her away from the media, we aren't going to be able to do it. Maybe we should just embrace it....in this kind of a forum."
She smiled at him. "Exactly what I was thinking. Trust me, this was a hard decision for me to make and then it was harder to bring it up to you...."
He shook his head. "I won't ever hold you back..."
"I know but there's a line when it comes to involving Mackenzie. Screw our careers....at least that's the way I feel."
He gently kissed her.
"That's the way I feel too."
