Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 50
Mid July 2005.......
Justin climbed on the bus and saw his two angels lying on the couch, sound asleep. Britney was laying on her back with Mackenzie sprawled across her stomach and chest. Britney's arms were protectively wrapped around her.
"Ready?" the bodyguard asked.
"Yeah," Justin said, taking a seat across from them.
As soon as the bus started to move Britney's eyes flew open and she jerked a little.
When she realized what was going on she closed them briefly before looking at Justin, who was trying not to laugh.
"It's not that funny, I could have dumped her on the floor," she mumbled, trying to move a little without waking Mackenzie up.
"Here, let me take her," he said, standing up and gently picking Mackenzie up.
He did a good job of not waking her, but she was almost dead asleep. He took her to the back of the bus and laid her down in her bunk and pulled the curtain partially shut. When he returned to the sitting area, Britney was sitting up straight, rubbing her face.
"How did the show go?" she yawned.
"It went well. It was a good crowd," he nodded, standing in the doorway as he watched her.
She looked up at him.
"How long is the drive to DC?"
"A couple of hours, I think. You're tired, why don't you go to bed?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I think I might."
"Did you have to give Mackenzie anymore Tylenol?"
She shook her head. "No, she seemed to be doing okay."
"Good."
"Justin...." she started.
"We'll talk tomorrow, okay? Neither of us have the energy right now."
He turned and walked back to the bedroom. He stripped and got into the shower before she had time to come back there.
When he came out of the shower she was sitting up in bed, staring at her hands. She glanced up at him and smiled. She missed seeing this gorgeous man, especially only wearing a towel.
"I really want to talk about it," she said, looking back down at her hands.
He sighed and sat down next to her, leaving one foot on the floor and the other stretched out in front of him.
"Okay."
"I don't know what you're thinking but I didn't mean to go out and get drunk. I didn't even realize I was drinking that much...."
She stopped to see if he had any comments. When he didn't she continued.
"I just was bored staying at home every night and Matt asked if I wanted to go grab something to eat so we found someplace close to the studio and then he kept ordering drinks or I kept ordering drinks, I don't even know...." she rubbed her forehead, closing her eyes.
When he still didn't say anything she looked up at him.
"Aren't you going to say anything?"
"What do you want me to say? I don't think anything happened, if that's what you're looking for."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't think you thought I cheated, I just don't want you thinking that I carelessly go out and get drunk when you're not around..."
"I think part of me was.....jealous," he said hesitantly, "that you went out like that with someone else. I mean when's the last time you and I went out to dinner and had a few drinks? Just the two of us?"
She shook her head.
"Right. And also what if it were the other way around? Think about how you would have felt if I had called you one morning with a hangover because I'd gone out the night before with one of my female dancers?"
He was trying to keep his voice even so he didn't wake Mackenzie up.
"I....I would have been okay," she said feebly.
He chuckled. "Yeah, right."
"I would have been upset but when you apologized, like I'm going, I would have let it go," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Okay, I'm letting it go," he said with a flick of his wrists.
"Do you forgive me?" she asked, looking up at him.
"There's nothing to forgive. You know it's going to end up in the tabloids, though, right?"
She shrugged. "Maybe not."
He gave her a "come on" look.
"Okay....most likely. We'll just deal with it if we need to," she sighed. "I'm really sorry, Justin." She looked up at him with her baby brown eyes and he knew he was lost.
"It's okay. Next time you go out, though.....let it be with me."
He leaned down and kissed her. She immediately turned her body and cupped his face with one of her hands. Before he realized what was happening she was straddling his lap.
"Your pajama's are getting wet," he mumbled against her mouth.
"I don't think I'll have them on long enough to care," she said breathlessly.
He chuckled and flipped her over so he was draped over her.
"Do you want to stay here tonight or go up to the room?" Justin asked as they lie in bed, still on the bus.
"We should probably go up to the room, huh?" Britney asked, turning over so she was resting her arms across his chest.
"Probably. I guess that means I have to get dressed."
She chuckled. "Me too. And we'd probably end up waking Mackenzie up....."
He looked down at her. "Let's just stay here the night."
She smiled. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
"So, you got a lot done for the movie?" he asked, lightly caressing her bare back with his fingers.
"Yeah. I'll probably have to make one more trip out there eventually but they got most of the audio they needed from me. Oh hey," she said adjusting her chin so she could look up at him better, "they want me to do a song for the soundtrack. Can you help me with that?"
He blinked. "Just like that? When do you need this song?"
"Um, as soon as possible," she said, biting her lower lip.
He rolled his eyes. "Geez, Brit. Nice notice," he said sarcastically.
"Oh come on....I know you and I can whip something great up."
"Ballad or something more catchy?"
"Hmm, good question. I'll have to call the producer and ask. So will you help me?"
He just stared at her and blinked.
"Please?" she asked, crawling her way up to his mouth so she could tease his lips with her own. "Pretty please?"
"Like I'm going to tell you no," he chuckled against her lips.
A few days later...
"Hey Trace."
"Hey man. Is everything going okay?" he asked Justin.
"Yeah, why?"
"I heard this thing on TV about Britney being at some club with the guy from her new movie."
Justin adjusted the phone against his ear so he could help Mackenzie with her blocks. They were sitting on his dressing room floor keeping themselves amused while Britney was out shopping.
"Dude, I can't believe you believe that cr.....stuff. It wasn't like that."
"Dewd," Mackenzie repeated.
Justin smiled at her and nodded.
"I know but there were pictures, man. She was with him and she looked pretty wasted. I've seen her drunk, you know?"
"I know but it was only dinner. Don't worry....we're cool."
"Okay....I was gonna say, if you need me to come out there or something...."
Justin chuckled. "What are you going to do, beat her up?"
"No, you know...I was there last time you guys had issues...." his voice drifted off.
"Yeah," Justin sighed. "But we're both mature adults. Hell, we're parents."
"Hell," Mackenzie repeated.
This time Justin stared at Mackenzie and shook his head no.
"Look, I've got to go. I tend to get carried away with my words with you and I'm teaching things to Mackenzie I shouldn't be."
Trace laughed. "Gotcha. I'll catch you later, man."
"Okay, bye."
Justin hung his phone up and set it down next to him. Mackenzie put the blocks she was holding down and picked up Justin's cell phone. She put it to her ear.
"Hi," she said and then proceeded to nod and giggle.
Justin tried hard not to laugh at her so he just smiled instead. "Who are you talking to?"
"Mommy," she said.
"Oh really?"
She nodded.
"Well, tell mommy good bye because we need to get the blocks up off of the floor before someone comes in here and breaks their neck. I don't want any of my dancers with a sprained ankle."
He started to put the blocks in the box so she followed suit.
As soon as the blocks were all put away, Justin looked around to make sure they were all up when he heard the box being dumped over. He turned back around and saw Mackenzie putting them all in the box again, smiling up at her daddy.
"What are you doing? Mackenzie, keep them in the box."
He helped her and when the box was full she was going to dump them over again.
"No," he said, taking the box away from her.
"No," she said back, furrowing her eyebrows together.
He moaned as he stood up. "Are we hitting the terrible twos at one and a half?"
He put the box away and walked back over to her. Just then the door opened and his tour manager came walking into the dressing room.
"Hey there," he said, looking at Justin and then down at Mackenzie.
"Hi Jim. What's up?" Justin asked, glancing up at him before looking back down at Mackenzie.
"We having a staring contest?" Jim asked.
"Don't ask," Justin said.
"Well, I just wanted to let you know that we're ready for sound check." He slapped him on the back before leaving the room.
"Great....where's mommy?" Justin asked looking at his watch. "Come on, you get to go to your first sound check."
He bent down to pick Mackenzie up.
"No," she said, trying to wiggle out of his arms.
He walked over to the table and got her earplugs out.
"Yes," he said, sticking the wax in her ears as he made his way to the stage.
Before he walked to the stage he stopped and got his mic pack put on. They helped him put the microphone on around his neck so he didn't have to let go of Mackenzie. She was intrigued with this new contraption her daddy just put on so she started to touch the microphone. He walked up through the back stairs and walked onto the stage. Part of his sound checks were open to select fans so there were already few people sitting in the audience.
He glanced over at the sound guy and nodded.
"Hello everyone," he said into the microphone. This made Mackenzie giggle. "I hope you don't mind but my babysitter hasn't made it in yet," he teased. "So, I have a helper today." He nodded toward his little girl who was propped on his hip.
The few people there reacted with ooo's and awwww's.
"How's everyone doing?" he asked, looking around as he stood in the dead front center of the stage. "Good," he nodded as the either cheered or clapped.
He set Mackenzie down and held her hand. She tried to walk to the back where she saw way too many shiny things but he wouldn't let her hand go.
"Well, I hope everyone is having a good day. What I'm going to do is practice a couple of songs to make sure the sound is right, that it has the right balance so just sit back and relax," he said walking toward the back of the stage. He looked over his shoulder and added, "Until I tell you to get up and dance," he chuckled.
By the second song Mackenzie was standing in the middle of the stage dancing with Justin. The people in the audience were eating this up and laughing with them. Britney stood on the stage, off to the side watching her husband and daughter dance as he sung and she couldn't help but smile at them. This scene warmed her heart so much....and scared her. She could see it now, Mackenzie Spears-Timberlake, headlining tour. She touched her hand to her throat as the tears welled in her eyes.
By the end of the song Justin was laughing so hard at what a ham Mackenzie was being that he couldn't finish the words so he knelt down and put the microphone to Mackenzie's mouth.
"Bah bah bah....." she sung as the band finished.
Justin scooped her up as everyone on and around the stage applauded.
"Well, you can see she has a little bit of the Spears-Timberlake entertainer in her," he chuckled. "Thank you guys for coming out. I hope you enjoy the show tonight," he said with a wave of his hand.
He did a cut motion to the sound guy who turned his microphone off. He waved at the band and the background singers as he exited.
"You are such the little ham, aren't you?" Justin asked, tickling Mackenzie's belly.
"Gee, I wonder where she gets that from?" Britney asked, waiting for them, her arms folded across her chest.
"Mommy," Mackenzie said, holding out her arms. Britney took her and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.
"Did you have fun out there?"
Mackenzie nodded. Justin took his mic pack off and leaned over to kiss Mackenzie on the cheek. He put his hand over his heart. "I'm so proud," he said.
Britney giggled.
"So am I.....so am I."