Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 76
May 2007.......
"And now.....Rosie O'Donnell."
Rosie appeared in front of the camera and smiled.
"I know what you're thinking......I thought she retired from this, but you know what? I had a reason to come back, just this once," she said, holding her finger up.
She chuckled.
"Of course, my Tommy," she said putting her hand over her heart, "my baby, has a movie coming out so when presented with the opportunity to sit down with him to discuss it, I couldn't turn that down. Then they told me I got to interview someone else," she said, tapping her finger against her closed mouth. "Ladies and gentleman.....my second favorite guy in the world, Justin Timberlake," she said, sweeping her hand toward a monitor to her left.
"Come on Mackenzie, you're going to be on TV in a little bit," Britney yelled over her shoulder.
"What about me?" Justin asked as he and Mackenzie walked into the room and took a seat on the couch next to Britney.
"You were there, you already knows what happens," Britney giggled before leaning over and giving him a quick kiss on the lips.
"Ha ha," he chuckled.
"Shhhh," Mackenzie said, pushing her parents apart.
"Geez," Britney joked as she turned her attention back to the TV.
"I love this house because it actually looks lived in," Rosie said as she and Justin turned a corner to the game room. He was giving Rosie the grand tour of the house.
He chuckled. "Is that your way of saying it's messy?"
Rosie laughed. "No, if you want to see messy....check anywhere my kids have been. It's not messy, though, it's just not this tidy little perfect place where it doesn't look like anyone actually lives there."
They look around the room and Justin picks up a pool stick.
"When do you come down here?" Rosie asked, picking up another pool stick.
"Usually when I need to chill....like while I'm recording, we'll come to this room and take a break, clear our minds."
"And the studio is over there, we passed it....."
"Right," Justin said, putting the stick down.
Rosie followed him out of the room and into the studio.
"Looks like the typical studio," Justin chuckled as he touched a couple buttons.
Rosie nodded. "It does but it's yours," she said, touching Justin's arm.
"Right," he laughed.
"How much time do you spend down here? Does Britney have a call button down here to buzz you when you've been down here too long?"
"Don't give her any ideas," Justin chuckled. "No, it's cool. She'll come down here and we'll hang out together."
Rosie looked around and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.
"Makes for a nice, secluded, soundproof room."
Justin chuckled. "You know....I don't think we've missed a room," he said in a macho tone. "Nah, I'm just kidding...I'm kidding."
Britney turned to look at Justin and then punched his arm.
"Ow," he said, rubbing his arm.
"Mommy hit daddy," Mackenzie giggled.
"I said I was kidding," he said.
Britney rolled her eyes and then turned her attention back to the TV.
Now Justin and Rosie were sitting in Justin's family room on the couch so they were sitting next to each other but both were turned so they were facing each other.
"I've known you for a long time," Rosie said, smiling at Justin.
Justin smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we have known each other a long time."
"I mean you were a little boy," she said, holding her hand about three feet off of the floor.
Justin chuckled. "Well...not that little."
"I don't know, Justin....."
"Oh God Rosie, please don't," he teased.
"Oh you know I have to," she said, turning toward a monitor next to them.
The image of Justin at eighteen with the rest of Nsync appeared on the monitor. Justin was wearing a black jacket and was singing the lead vocals to "God Must Have Spent...." on The Rosie O'Donnell show back in February 1999.
When Rosie looked back over at Justin, he was sitting with his hand covering his face as he shook his head.
"What was I thinking with that hair?" he chuckled.
Rosie laughed. "I thought you guys were so cute. Look at you....."
"Mackenzie, do you know who that is?" Britney asked her daughter in an amused tone as she pointed to the TV.
"Uncle JC?"
"Well, yeah there's Uncle JC.....and Uncle Lance, Uncle Joey and Uncle Chris but the one who is singing, who is that?"
Mackenzie stared at the TV and all of a sudden a slow smile formed on her face. "Dadddyyyy!"
"Yeah, that's daddy," Justin mumbled.
"That not your haiw," she giggled.
Justin looked over at Britney and they both chuckled. "No, it's a wig."
"No," Britney laughed, "that's daddy's real hair, he just had a bad dye job," Britney added.
"Okay, thank you for submitting my child to this," Justin teased her.
"It was only a matter of time," Rosie teased.
She continued to show all of Justin's appearances on her show.
November 2000
"Are you and Britney Spears dating?"
"Yes," Justin answered, almost shyly.
"Awwww," Britney said, sticking her lower lip out. "When was that?"
"You were touring in Europe, I think....this was almost right after the VMA's that year," he said, touching her arm. By now, Mackenzie was sitting on Britney's lap and Justin had scooted closer to them.
April 2002
"I know you and Britney are still friends...." Rosie said.
Justin nodded. "Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up. Yes, we are still friends and no matter what, I wouldn't disrespect her in any way."
"You looked so sad," Britney said softly.
"I was. They told me that Rosie might bring something up about the breakup and I wasn't worried because I knew she wouldn't make it too awkward for me. But it was hard talking about it publicly like that," he said, staring at the TV.
"See, I wanted to have a follow-up to that but my show ended," Rosie teased. "I knew the two of you would get back together because you were one of my favorite couples and I wanted only good things for you guys."
"Aww, well thanks. It took awhile but here we are," he said holding his arms out.
"It didn't take that long, actually."
"But it was hard. It's hard enough going through your relationship with someone in the public eye but then when you break up with them and this is your real life but the press only looks at it like a story, it's hard. I didn't know how to deal with any of it."
"So what did you do?" Rosie asked, becoming very serious.
"I wrote Justified," he laughed.
"And a great album that was. Seriously again, I was kicking myself that I didn't have my show anymore because you know I would have had you on there."
"Let me tell you, I missed not having your show to go on."
"So lets talk about Britney since we brought her up. You two have been married how long now?"
Justin only had to think for a second. "Two years."
"And you have two adorable children who we get to meet a little later, I think."
Justin nodded.
"Is that hard for you guys? Trying to keep things as normal as possible when you've got the paparazzi breathing down your neck all the time?" Rosie asked.
"Yeah....you kind of get used to trying to not be in the public eye so much that it doesn't really consume our lives as much. Our main thing is that we have healthy, happy children. We don't want to expose them to anything that's going to be a bad influence on them or frighten them."
During the commercial break, Britney went upstairs to check on Chase.
"Where am I, daddy?" Mackenzie asked. She was now sitting on his lap.
"You're going to be on really soon. Do you remember how nice Rosie was?" Justin asked.
Mackenzie nodded.
"Brit?" Justin yelled.
"I'm coming. Chase's favorite stuffed toy fell out of the bed," she said as she took her place next to him again.
"Okay, let's clear up all the rumors about how the two of you got back together," Rosie started as she sat back a little on the couch.
"You want the truth? I don't know," Justin chuckled as he shook his head. "I'm kidding. Really, I didn't realize there were so many rumors. The real story about what happened was that Brit and I ran into each other at a club. We danced and there was a little alcohol involved and uhhhh all I'll say is we ended up back at her place."
"Nine months later, Mackenzie was born?" Rosie smiled.
Justin chuckled. "Exactly."
"So the pregnancy wasn't planned....."
"No, she wasn't exactly planned but we consider her our miracle that got us back together."
"So did you guys get back together right away once you found out you were going to have a baby?"
Justin shook his head. "No, not really. I mean we spent a lot of time together because I wanted to be with her during the pregnancy but we were both cautious to make sure that when we got back together it was because of us and not because of the baby."
Rosie nodded. "Seems like it worked. When did you both realize?"
"I think we realized at different times. I realized it almost right away I think but it took Britney about a year after she found out she was pregnant."
"Were you hurt that it took longer for her?"
"No, I wouldn't say I was hurt. I knew she had feelings for me still so it was only a matter of time before she realized it and told me."
"Cocky bastard," Britney mumbled.
"Cocky bastawd," Mackenzie repeated.
Justin cocked an eyebrow. "See what kind of language you're teaching our daughter?" he teased.
"I've seen pictures from your wedding. How difficult was it to trick the press like you did?" Rosie chuckled.
"Did we trick them?" Justin asked, innocently then he laughed. "Well it was all a matter of timing really. We wanted a wedding on a beach and knew that if it got out, we'd have fifty helicopters flying overhead so it was just a matter of spreading the word that we were getting married in Beverly Hills when we were really getting married in Florida."
"But with as publicly known as both of you are, I'm surprised no one spotted either of you in Florida."
Justin shrugged. "I don't know but it all came together. We just had to do a lot of hiding."
A couple of wedding photos flashed on the screen.
"Let's talk about your new album before we get into the discussion about the car accident," Rosie said seriously.
They talked about Justin's upcoming album and how he took a different approach on it because of the different things in his life he had just encountered.
"I tried not to make the album too much one way. Like a lot more spiritual type, thankful songs were floating in my mind because I'm so grateful to have my wife and son safe and okay but I knew I couldn't make a whole album like that so I needed to use some of those phrases and put them into another song that has nothing to do with that. So we tried things like that."
"I got a copy of it," she said holding the CD up.
"Oh," Justin said in a surprised tone. "Good."
"You didn't know that, did you?" she chuckled. "But it's really really good and I can see that influence you were talking about in it. I can hear it. You sound like a very grateful person who isn't going to take for granted what he has in his life. Meaning everything from your family to your voice....."
Justin nodded. "Exactly. When something tragic happens in your life you just sit back and take a look at what's important and what you should be thankful for."
"Most people are moving so fast that they forget that."
"Yeah, everyone does. Hell, I did."
"I never felt like you took me for granted," Britney said, leaning against Justin's shoulder.
"No, I didn't, but you know what I meant," he said, kissing the top of her head.
There was another commercial break.
"When am I going to be on TV," Mackenzie pouted.
"After this commercial, I think," Justin said. "She saved the best for last, right?"
Mackenzie nodded and tried to keep her eyes open.
"Tell me about the night Britney and your son were in the car accident," Rosie said in a sympathetic tone.
Justin closed his eyes briefly. "I felt so helpless. I was at the airport because that's where they were on their way to, to pick Mackenzie and I up and they weren't there and then I get a phone call...." He paused. "It was like all hell broke loose in my life. It felt very surreal like it wasn't really happening to me. I can't even remember the details of that night anymore. I just remember being by Britney's side and telling her that Chase was okay but had suffered some nerve damage. Then there was just a lot of waiting."
"Waiting to find out what was wrong...."
Justin nodded. "Right, that was the hardest part. We had a great group of doctors at Mercy, though. I mean they got results as soon as they could and we were given the options...."
"Tell us exactly what happened with Chase."
"Well, he suffered some nerve damage near his lower spine. The nerves were being pinched, basically and he didn't have feeling from his waist down. So their suggestion was to do surgery to try to relieve some of the pressure against the spine and well, un-pinch this nerve so that he could start getting feeling back and then do physical therapy after that."
"Because his motor skills are going to be weaker because of all that?" Rosie asked.
"Yeah, he'll need a little more help and a little more work to do things like crawl or stand or walk."
"What had he been able to do before the accident?"
"He had just crawled that evening. Britney caught it on tape. He was only four months old and he was crawling," Justin said proudly.
Rosie smiled back at him.
"So it's been quite a few weeks since the surgery and everything went well, right?"
"Yeah it went really well and we've started the physical therapy.....Nicole is our PT and she does a wonderful job with Chase and with us," he chuckled.
"You guys have to learn a lot of things now too...."
"Right."
"Have you seen improvement or is it a slower process than you thought?"
"We've seen improvement. I guess I didn't know how fast or slow things would move so I just look at it one day at a time and when you do that you can see a difference. It's great that every movement is something special," he chuckled. "We just get so happy because he moves his leg a different way."
"I bet you thank God every day," Rosie said, fighting back tears.
"Every single day," Justin agreed.
Justin turned his head when he heard Britney sniff.
"Brit....you were there, you knew this would get emotional...." Justin said, rubbing her leg.
"Don't cwy mommy....." Mackenzie said, rubbing Britney's leg like her daddy was.
Britney chuckled. "I wasn't there while you were talking to her. I was getting our children more gorgeous for the camera."
"Oh is that what took you so long?" Justin asked.
"It wasn't that long," she giggled.
"Daddy," Mackenzie whined as she looked up at Justin with puppy dog eyes.
"I swear you are on next....who knew there would be so many commercials?" he laughed.
They cut back to Britney walking next to Rosie and exchanging hugs with her. Justin pulled Mackenzie up on his lap and Chase was propped up on a couple of pillows next to where Britney was going to be sitting on the couch.
"Being a mommy agrees with you," Rosie said as they sat down. Rosie took a seat in a chair opposite of them.
"Aww well thank you. It does make me very happy," Britney agreed.
"It's one of those things, when you don't have children, you just have no idea how much they change your life until you have one," Rosie said.
Both Justin and Britney nodded in agreement.
"And it just changes it in so many ways. Things that used to be important aren't so important anymore...."
"Exactly," Britney said. She shifted on the couch so she was sitting back a little with Justin on her left and Chase on her right. He was busy playing with a toy.
"Hi Mackenzie," Rosie said.
"Hi," Mackenzie said.
"That's me," Mackenzie screamed, which made Justin squint one eye and stick his finger in his ear.
"How old are you?" Rosie asked.
"I'm fwee," she said, holding out three fingers.
"Wow....you're such a big girl and you are one of the most beautiful little girls I think I've ever seen. Who does she look like?" Rosie asked as she sat back to study the family.
Both Justin and Britney pointed at each other and they all laughed.
"Say thank you to Rosie for saying that you're beautiful," Justin whispered in Mackenzie's ear.
"Thank you, Rosie."
"You are welcome. I think she looks too much like both of you. Your hair and eyes," she said pointing to Justin, "and your mouth and cheeks I think....." she said pointing to Britney.
"There's definitely a resemblance of both of us especially when you look at baby pictures of both of us..." Britney started.
"Oh God, don't give her any ideas," Justin moaned, which made them laugh again.
"I know your mother, young man, she'll get me whatever I want," Rosie said, waggling her finger at him.
When Rosie started to pay attention to Chase, Britney reached over and put him on her lap. He was getting the hang of sitting up a little better so she propped him on her knees so he could sit up straight.
"Now here is the handsome boy we've been talking about," Rosie smiled at him, which made him giggle. "He seems like a happy baby."
"He is....which I think has helped him through all of this as well as us. To see him lying there in the bed, helpless, and then to see him smile up at us, was the best medicine at the moment," Britney said.
They talked a little bit more about the accident and the Timberlake's involvement in neurological injuries.
"We wanted to give something back to the people who are involved with helping Chase," Justin said. "It's really the least we can do."
"When you have the means it's nice to be able to help the causes you choose," Rosie agreed.
"Exactly and we always focused on charities involving children so we've just expanded that to include spinal and neurological injuries as well."
"I'm sure your donations will be put to good use."
"We'll make sure they are," Britney said, smiling over at Justin.
"Have you been able to actually become involved with any organizations yet?" Rosie asked.
"That's funny that you ask that now because we've been looking into a couple of very good organizations and are trying to decide which one to focus more of our energy on. We were very lucky that we could get the best surgeons and the best physical therapy program because we can afford it but there aren't many people out there who are that lucky. So what we intend to do is donate money as well as our time to whatever organization we choose," Justin said.
Chase started to wave his hands in the air and Rosie reached over and took him from Britney, setting him on her lap.
"You think he'll be okay?" she asked, Britney.
"I think he will be.....we'll see," Britney chuckled.
Mackenzie turned on Justin's lap a little and rested her head against Justin's shoulder.
"Mackenzie, do you get to help your brother with his therapy?" Rosie asked her.
Mackenzie nodded and stuck her finger in her mouth. Justin reached up and took her finger out of her mouth.
"Yes," Mackenzie said.
"She's very good at helping. There's a couple of exercises that Nicole gave us just for Mackenzie to help with," Justin nodded as he wiped the hair away from Mackenzie's face.
"Well, once you decide on an organization I'll spread the word any way I can," Rosie said as she bounced Chase on her knee.
"Thank you," Justin said.
"Any help would be wonderful," Britney agreed.
"Now, Britney......what's going on with you? We know Justin has the album coming out," Rosie said as she quickly grabbed her CD with her free hand and held it up, which made both Justin and Britney chuckle, "but what's going on with you?"
"Right now I am enjoying being a mommy......and a wife," she said glancing over at Justin.
"When Mackenzie was young we both had a lot going on so everything seemed rushed. This time, especially since we have to do the therapy with Chase, I want to spend more time just being with them instead of running around trying to figure out when the next photo shoot or interview is going to be."
Rosie nodded.
"Does this mean you're taking time off for awhile?" Rosie asked.
"Well yes, but I'm not going to say how long," Britney chuckled, "because last time that got me in trouble but I'll be concentrating on this job for now. We'll be traveling with Justin a lot soon, too."
Rosie nodded. "Does that mean touring?"
"Yeah it means touring. I love to tour, don't get me wrong, but it's a more difficult choice when it comes down to leaving your family so we're lucky that they'll just come along with me."
"Would you not tour if they couldn't come with you for some reason?" Rosie inquired.
"Hmm, that would be tough. It would definitely be a choice I don't want to have to make," he chuckled.
"Me either," Britney said, shaking her head.
"Well there will be a lot of people that will miss having you perform for awhile," Rosie said to Britney.
"Awww, thank you," Britney smiled.
"She's so sweet," Britney said.
"Yeah, she's great. I'm glad she asked me to do this interview. I felt more comfortable with her."
Britney nodded.
After the next commercial break they cut back to Justin on the couch with Rosie.
"If you look back at your life the past few years, what do you think about it? What goes through your mind?" Rosie asked.
Justin smiled and then laughed a little. "A lot has happened. I'm at a place right now where I never thought I'd be......musically, spiritually and personally and honestly, I wouldn't change any of it. I wouldn't change any challenge or mistake or choice I've made because I'm so happy right now. I feel so content with life."
"You're not referring to your daughter as one of those mistakes are you?" Rosie asked.
Justin shook his head. "No no no no no. I've always told Britney that her getting pregnant wasn't a careless mistake that happened.....it was our destiny. It's what was supposed to happen so we could be right where we are right now."
Britney leaned her head onto Justin's shoulder.
"I love you," she sighed.
"I love you too," Justin said, leaning his head down to kiss the top of hers. "And I meant every word."
"I know you did," she said, holding his hand in hers.