Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 53
Late August 2005.......
"God....home sweet home," Britney said as she walked into the foyer of their LA mansion. She dropped her bags on the ground where she stood and she rolled her neck around.
Justin pushed the front door open and had to nudge Britney out of the way so that he and Mackenzie could get through.
"Do you mind?" he asked, bumping her heel with the door.
"Hungwy," Mackenzie shouted.
"You're always hungry," Britney said, ruffling her hair. "Give us just a minute, sweetie."
She started to grab a bag to take it upstairs but Justin stopped her.
"I'll get the bags if you go get her fed," he said.
"Sounds like a deal to me. Come on, Mackenzie," she said as she started to walk down the hall to the kitchen.
The driver finished bringing the rest of the bags in so Justin started to take them upstairs.
When he took the last bag upstairs to their bedroom, he rubbed his temple. His head was hurting worse and he wasn't sure if it was from the traveling or because he was exhausted. Either way he went to the bathroom to get the aspirin. When he opened the medicine cabinet, something fell out and landed in the sink. He picked it up and studied it. Birth control pills? What were these doing here?
He put them in his pocket and then took a couple of aspirin before returning downstairs. When he got closer to the kitchen, he could hear the radio, Britney singing and Mackenzie blabbering. He stood in the doorway and chuckled when he noticed Britney was dancing as she took something out of the microwave and Mackenzie was sitting in her highchair, banging the tray with her hands to the beat of the music while she "sang" along.
"You're the one one that I want.....who who who, honey," Britney sang, while swaying her hips.
"I can't believe you have this much energy," Justin said, more to himself than to anyone in particular since the radio was so loud.
She swung around and noticed Justin standing there. She danced her way over to him and draped her arms around his waist and continued to sway.
He gave her a small smile. Suddenly she turned around and walked back quickly over to the radio and turned it way down.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Headache," he said, taking a seat next to Mackenzie's highchair.
"Oh, I'm sorry, baby. I wouldn't have had the music so loud if I had known. No wonder you were so quiet in the car."
She brought the plate with the macaroni and cheese over to Mackenzie and set it down in front of her.
"Why don't you just go on up to bed?" she asked, walking over to him. She stood behind him and started to rub his temples.
He closed his eyes and rested his head back against her stomach.
"I would but I'm hungry. You have any macaroni and cheese for me?"
She smiled, leaned down and kissed his forehead. "I think I can whip something up."
"Wait," he said, catching her hand before she walked away. "Don't stop."
She chuckled and stood behind him again to continue rubbing his temples.
"You coming to bed soon," Britney asked, later on. She had just gone upstairs to check on Mackenzie before turning in herself.
"Yeah, I'll be right up," Justin said, lifting his head up off of the couch.
In a few minutes, Britney was sliding into bed when Justin came into the room.
"Oh, you unpacked," he said, looking around. "I would have helped."
She shrugged. "It's okay. Most of it was dirty anyway so I put it in the hamper."
She slid down a little and watched Justin as he took his watch off. He pulled his shirt up over his head and threw it over a chair. Then he unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and started to slide those off when something fell out of the pocket.
"What was that?" Britney asked, sitting up a little in bed so she could try to see what fell on the floor.
Justin let the pants fall all the way to the floor and stepped out of them before picking up the case of birth control pills.
"Your pills," he said, holding them up.
"Oh," she said. "What are you doing with them?" she asked with a nervous chuckle.
"The better question would be, what were you doing without them?"
She took a deep breath. She wasn't going to lie. "I left them here."
"On accident? I would have thought you would have mentioned it to me."
She looked down at her entwined fingers and slowly shook her head.
"No....I knew I left them here."
He stared at the case for a few seconds. "May I ask why?"
"Because, at the time, "she sighed, "I thought it was a good idea."
"What.....keeping it from me?"
"No....I didn't mean for it to seem like that. I was just feeling a little insecure before I left to be with you and Mackenzie again and I thought it would bring us closer. I shouldn't have made that decision without you," she said softly.
He sat down next to her and set the packet down on the nightstand.
"So, why didn't you tell me once you rejoined us?"
"I don't know, Justin. I can't explain what was going through my mind at the time," she said, waving her arms around. "Once I realized what it meant, I had already started my period so I knew I wasn't pregnant anyway. I guess I figured what was the point of mentioning it then...."
"So, you're not pregnant?"
She shook her head. "I'm not. I had my period a couple of weeks ago. Then I realized that I had taken a decision away from you by hiding it.....I didn't mean for it to be like that, really." She looked at him with pleading eyes.
He touched her face, leaned in and kissed her cheek.
"It's okay. It just hurt that you kept something like this from me."
She nodded as she looked up into his eyes. "I know....it won't happen again," she quietly choked out.
He kissed her again, this time on the lips. When he pulled away she kept her eyes shut for a moment.
"I love you. Is your headache gone?" she asked, massaging his neck.
"Yeah....mostly. I just think everything was catching up to me.....the traveling and the flying. Mmmm, you going to keep that up?" he smiled, leaning his head back a little.
"Haven't I massaged you enough today?" she teased.
"Never enough."
She made herself more comfortable and continued massaging his neck and shoulders.
"Mackenzie's going to be a star one day," he said matter-of-factly.
She stopped massaging for a second before continuing. "What makes you say that?" she chuckled.
"We've seen her performing a couple times now. Today, in the kitchen, is a prime example. She's a natural."
She smiled.
"Well, look at her parents....weren't we both performing at that age?"
He gave a short laugh. "Yeah. I wonder if our parent's were as scared about it as I am?"
She did stop massaging this time and sat down so she was facing his side.
"You're scared?"
He shrugged. "Well, not scared......just not sure I want her to do this."
"Justin...." she started.
"I mean I love what I do and I can't imagine doing anything else but isn't it only natural to want your child to have a normal life and not have to go through the rejection and the criticisms we go through?"
She nodded. "Or the rumors and lack of privacy....."
"Exactly."
"I guess it's natural for us to worry, but honey," she said, rubbing his shoulder again, "she's only seventeen months old, I think we have awhile before we really have to worry." She rested her chin on his shoulder.
"You're right."
Mid September.....
"I just got my schedule for promoting the movie," Britney said, joining Justin and Mackenzie in the family room.
"They're giving that to you already?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. They'll add more, I'm sure."
"When is that?" he asked, trying to look over her shoulder at the schedule.
"January.....they pushed the release date back to February," she shrugged.
He sighed and leaned back against the couch.
"Let's not think about work," he said, rubbing her back. "It's been a month since either of us had anything to do that was remotely close to working."
She smiled. "Has it been that long?"
"Mmmhmmm," he said lazily.
"Mommy," Mackenzie said.
When Britney looked down at her daughter she was standing in front of them, holding Play-doh out.
"What color is that?" Britney asked her.
"Wed," Mackenzie said, smiling.
"Very good," Britney said, leaning down and kissing Mackenzie on the cheek. "I think that play group has been good for her," she said to Justin.
"I think she enjoys it," Justin agreed. "I almost feel like we're real parent's now," he chuckled.
Britney nodded and then stopped when it made her head spin. She almost had this feeling like she could throw up, but it went away quickly.
"Oh geez.....I hope I'm not coming down with something. Not with mama and Jamie Lynn coming out," she said, holding her stomach.
"Why?" Justin asked.
"I just felt light headed, like when you have the stomach flu."
"Why don't you go lay down?"
"No, I feel okay now."
"Gween," Mackenzie said, holding out the green Play-doh.
Britney and Justin chuckled.
"Right," Britney said, nodding again.
The next morning Britney sat on the side of their bed, taking deep breaths. That's how Justin found her.
"You okay?" he asked, walking to the closet.
"Maybe.....Justin?"
He stopped and turned around to face her.
"Things are adding up....."
"What are you talking about?" he asked, walking over to her.
"Nausea.....my period's late....."
His eyes got big. "Late? Like a day or two?"
She shook her head. "Like two weeks......I wasn't panicking too much because I thought I had screwed up my schedule by not taking the pill last month. But this is really late."
"I didn't think the timing was right for you to get....." he stopped before he said the word.
"But there were those two weeks after my period and before I started on the pill again. I didn't think it was my fertile time, though," she said, starting to get upset.
He knelt down in front of her and touched her knees. "Don't get yourself upset over this. It will be okay," he slightly chuckled.
"But I did this without you....."
He smiled. "No, I think I was there."
She gave him a crooked smile, through her worrying. "You know what I mean. I made the decision without you to stop taking birth control. I thought it would be okay because I really didn't think I was pregnant and now that I am, most likely, I feel bad....."
He stopped her from rambling by placing his fingers over her lips.
"Stop, okay? No matter how you got pregnant, it doesn't really matter because it's our child. No matter when we have children he or she will be another miracle from God."
Her face softened.
"No guilt," he added.
She nodded and a couple of tears fell down her cheeks.
"Do you want me to pick up a pregnancy test?"
She nodded again.
"I'll go right now," he said, starting to stand up, but she grabbed his hand.
"Justin....." She looked up at him with her tearful eyes.
He took her hand and pulled her to stand up, pulling her into his arms and held her.
"It's okay.....don't feel bad about this, okay? It wasn't planned....well, it wasn't planned by both of us, but it's okay, really."
She nodded against his chest.
"Besides.....maybe I'm not, maybe it's just something else," she added.
He lifted her chin so she was looking at him. He lowered his mouth to hers and gently kissed her.
"Well, in a way I hope it's not something else because then that means there might be a problem," he said, smiling at her. "I'll be back."
"I love you so much," she said, tightening her arms around him.
He kissed the top of her head. "I love you too." With that, he let her go and walked out of the room.